


100 Chapter Challenge

by Lunatasha



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-08
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2017-12-26 00:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 37,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/959355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunatasha/pseuds/Lunatasha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of HitsuKarin oneshots! Each chapter is a oneshot inspired by a single word. Each chapter has a summary at the start, so you can read whichever ones interest you. 21st chapter, Purr: When he imagined what his family life would be like, it didn't involve a cat. But then, children can be very persuasive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Tōshirō found himself in a boring meeting yet again, other commanding officers talking about issues he quite frankly did not care about. However a new Vice-Captain is introduced, a woman who really grabs his attention.

Tōshirō sighed quietly, just wanting this long meeting to be over. He was incredibly bored. He understood that these meetings were needed, that much was obvious, but that didn't mean they were interesting. Ever since Soul Society calmed down the meetings had gotten a little irritating to be honest. Yes they had to be done but it was the same thing over and over again. Tōshirō wanted a change for the same boring routine that had been taking place for the past few decades or so. Tōshirō paused for a moment. Wow. Had it really been that many decades since the ever so famous Winter War? Time always goes fast when you're not paying attention to it.

Tōshirō felt a slight nudge in his side, drawing him away from his thoughts. He glanced at his Vice-Captain, the person who nudged him before focusing on the current conversation and looking to the other captains. After a minute or so he realised they were talking about one of the seated officers in the second squad being promoted to the second squad Vice-Captain. About time too. The previous Vice-Captain, Omaeda Marechiyo, had stepped down due to health problems that were caused by an unhealthy and more than luxurious lifestyle. Who the second squad Vice-Captain was didn't make a blindest bit of difference to Tōshirō to be honest, but regardless of that he was curious. Hopefully they would be a little less annoying, for Suì-Fēng's sake if not for anything else. At last the new Vice-Captain was revealed, causing all of the Captains and Vice-Captains who were in the meeting hall to turn their heads towards the opening door.

Tōshirō was lucky that years and years of practice meant that he could control his expressions for the majority of the time. Very lucky. Otherwise the entire room would see just how surprised he was by the new commanding officer. She was stunningly beautiful. It wasn't like Tōshirō had fallen in love with her right there and then. To be perfectly honest he found the entire notion of 'love at first sight' to be a little ridiculous. He had found other women to be beautiful as well. He hit puberty about 30 year ago or so, which had made him much more 'aware' of such things. But this woman practically took his breath away.

She had creamy smooth skin which contrasted well with her jet black hair, and rather pink lips. Her eyes looked black at first, but when the sun shone on them it revealed that actually they were a very dark blue. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and her shinigami uniform was immaculate. She bowed down low to all of the commanding officers in the meeting hall as her Captain introduced her to them. When she straightened back up from the bow there was a welcoming smile on her face. It was obvious she was quite proud of herself, regardless of the nervous energy that was surrounding her.

Suì-Fēng almost looked proud of her as well. Tōshirō wondered if the two were close, it would certainly help the squad if they got along well. Before he knew it the meeting had been dismissed and the Captains and Vice-Captains were leaving. He was nudged in his side, yet again by his Vice-Captain. "What is it Matsumoto?"  
"So, what do you think of the new Vice-Captain?"  
Tōshirō turned his head to look at Rangiku, who had a suspicious expression on her face, causing Tōshirō to narrow his eyes a fraction. "I can't really form an opinion of her until she's been in the Vice-Captain position for a couple of weeks."  
Rangiku giggled. "I don't mean a professional opinion of her Captain. She's really pretty! Surely you noticed that. She seems like your type!"  
Tōshirō raised an eyebrow. "My type?"  
"Yeah! Haven't you noticed that the girls you like tend to have dark hair, nice smiles and feisty personalities? Not to say that you stick to only that sort of girl, but you seem to have a tendency to like those type of girls."

Tōshirō thought for a moment. That was actually true, he just never realised it before. As he had gotten older and taller and well quite frankly a little less grumpy Rangiku had taken to occasionally dragging him out of the office to go out with her and her friends. The ones she dragged him to usually involved commanding officers, who he got along with, so he kinda let her. The topic of women had been brought up on these outings, which wasn't unexpected. But when they talked about their type Tōshirō generally stayed silent because he didn't really know what to say, he never thought he had a type.

He didn't want to think of himself to have a type before either. The idea of limiting his choices to fit a certain criteria (that he didn't even know he had) put him off a little bit. It made him feel shallow, which he didn't enjoy. Rangiku, after seeing the expression on his face, assured him.  
"Captain, it's ok to have a type, it's just having preferences. It doesn't mean you stick to them all the time it just means you happen to find that sort of thing attractive. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!"  
Tōshirō, not really wanting to get into this conversation told Rangiku to get a move on to the office so they could get started on the paperwork there.

XxXxXxXxXxX

It had been a couple of weeks since the appointment of the new Vice-Captain, who according to Rangiku had settled in nicely. Tōshirō pretended that he couldn't care less and that it didn't bother him what happened in other peoples' squads, but he couldn't help but be a little curious. Not that he could ask. Rangiku was barely in the office anyway. She was supposed to be in the office now but was away doing god knows what, leaving Tōshirō alone to do all of the paperwork. All you could hear in the office was the quiet sounds of pen going across paper as Tōshirō signed various forms.

His attention was drawn away from the paperwork as he heard a knock in the door. It wasn't Rangiku as she always just bursted into the office as she saw fit. It was probably just one of his seated officers. He loudly said "Come in" before continuing with the paperwork. He heard the visitor come into the office, but they had stayed near the door. Which was strange as he had told his officers that if they needed to talk to him they could as long as he let them in the office. As this person hadn't started talking and they had stayed by the door Tōshirō could safely assume that they weren't a member of his squad. Not letting curiosity get the better of him, he finished the form he was on before looking up.

Tōshirō was a little surprised to say the least when he saw the Vice-Captain of the second squad standing nervously by the door, her right hand still on the doorknob as if she was going to run back out at any time. He tried to hold back his shock. " Do you need help with anything?"  
The girl looked awkwardly around, avoiding his eyes before answering. "Well not as such. Rangiku told me to meet her here at this time so she could take me out with the rest of the Vice-Captains. I don't know my way round all that well yet."  
Tōshirō paused for a moment. Rangiku was already late, and could quite easily be later still, and he didn't want the atmosphere to be awkward between them if they were going to be in the same room for a while, waiting for Rangiku to take to her to wherever the Vice-Captains were meeting. So he decided to start a conversation. "Ah. Is that what your so nervous about?"

The woman scratched the back of her neck. "Er...Well a little. I know all of them through meetings but the only two I've spent time with outside of the meetings is Rangiku and Renji. And even then it's because they approached me rather than the other way around." She scratched the back of her neck again. "I'm not exactly good with people."  
Tōshirō wondered if the neck scratching was a nervous habit. "I see. I wouldn't worry, they're all decent people, if a little...eccentric."  
Tōshirō has to stop himself from smiling when she grinned at his last comment. "So where are you going anyway?"  
The woman shrugged. "I'm not really sure. A bar I think? Or rather a place that has a bar in it."  
Tōshirō should've guessed. "Well then there certainly isn't anything to worry about. Before long they'll be too drunk to care."

The woman started to laugh, causing Tōshirō to give a small smile. It was also nice to see that she no longer had her hand on the doorknob, which he hoped meant she didn't feel too nervous around him any more. Not that it mattered. Her opinion of him didn't matter at all. Obviously not. The woman stopped laughing and spoke again. "You know you're a lot nicer than I thought you would be." Tōshirō raised an eyebrow, which caused the woman to be a little flustered. "Not that I had a bad opinion of you or anything! It's just you're known for being a little, well, icy. That sort of thing isn't said anywhere near as much as when I first came into Soul Society though."

"I see."  
"Sorry."  
Tōshirō noticed she was scratching the back of her neck again. "For what?"  
"I dunno. The rumours about you and the fact that I kinda made a judgement about you before I met you I guess."  
"Don't worry about it." Tōshirō paused for a moment. "What's your name anyway?"  
She spoke with a smile. "Karin, Karin Kurosaki."  
Tōshirō's eyes widened briefly. "Kurosaki?"  
Karin rolled her eyes. "Yes Kurosaki. And yes as in related to Ichigo Kurosaki. There was a whole discussion about it in the meeting when they introduced me, don't you remember?"

Well, that was awkward. He pretty much had no idea what had happened in the meeting after Karin had entered because he was too busy, well...staring at her. Not that he could tell her that. "Oh yes of course. Sorry, I just have a lot on my plate at the minute."  
The look on her face told him that she didn't buy that. At all. Crap. Luckily for Tōshirō she let it go. "I see. Well that's understandable, with you being a Captain and all."  
Tōshirō decided to go with it, even though they both knew that was a lie. "Quite. Um, if you don't mind me asking, how are here?"  
"...I shunpoed here."  
"No as in Soul Society."

Karin laughed. "Wow you really weren't paying attention in that meeting were you? That came up as well. My family are alive and well, including Ichigo. An unfortunate car accident killed me. And when I say car accident I mean there was a 22 car pile-up to the point where it was practically impossible for me not to die. I died...I think it's 47 years ago now? I died when I was 14, in the back seat with my friend in their parents car."  
"Oh...What happened to your friend?"  
"They died too. But they ended up in the second district of East Rukongai, so it's not that bad. I still visit her."  
"So you remember your life before you died?" Spiritual power or not, that was rare. Or rather, he rarely heard about souls remembering their past life.  
"Not really. I remember my death, which meant I remember my friend, I remember fragments, namely stuff that involves my family."

Tōshirō nodded. "So I take it you don't visit them."  
"No. I tried once, about a decade or so after I died but it was too weird. Only my father was in the house I grew up in, and he was different to what I remember. I couldn't bring myself to talk to him. I managed to track down my sister, but she was married with a baby girl. She clearly had moved on with her life, I didn't want to wreck that by showing up right there and then."  
Tōshirō nodded again. "I see. What about your brother?"  
Karin shrugged. "I couldn't find him. It's pretty obvious he's not dead though, otherwise he would've caused an uproar already."  
Tōshirō saw Karin smiling to herself and he ended up smiling too. "That's true."

Karin smile at the memory of her family before changing the subject. "You know, I thought the amount of paperwork a Vice-Captain gets was ridiculous, but looking at this it seems easy."  
"Yes well, this is what happens when your Vice-Captain decides she has better things to do than paperwork. You're more than welcome to take some home with you."  
Karin laughed. "I'm good thanks. Although if you ever do find yourself really struggling with the workload and you need help feel free to ask."  
"Really?"  
Karin gave him a huge, kind smile. "Yeah! As long as I'm not too busy."  
"Why?"  
Karin shrugged before leaning on the door, still smiling. "I like you." Tōshirō tried to hide his smile when she said that.

Good god she really was gorgeous. Tōshirō felt like her smile could melt his Bankai. He took the comfortable lull in the conversation as a chance to look at her properly. She wasn't wearing the standard shinigami uniform like she was in the meeting hall. She was wearing similar uniform to that of the commander-in-chief of Onmitsukidō, the sleeveless uniform that Captain Suì-Fēng wore underneath her standard shinigami uniform. You know thinking about it Tōshirō wondered how she didn't overheat. Tōshirō was a little surprised. He thought that only the commander-in-chief of the Onmitsukidō was allowed to wear that uniform. Admittedly it wasn't exactly the same uniform but still. It meant either he was wrong, or she happened to be very skilled and Suì-Fēng liked her.

He had heard about a technique that Sui-Feng had pretty much perfected that involved high spiritual pressure accumulating on the shoulders and back causing the fabric to rip away. Perhaps Karin had started training in that technique which meant she needed this uniform? He had never seen the technique but apparently it required a great deal of concentration, skill and practice. Tōshirō couldn't help but respect the woman that was standing in front of him. It seemed like she was powerful, which was unsurprising given the family she came from. It made him wonder.

"Have you considered going for a Captain's position in the future?"  
Karin shook her head. "No way. Not now anyway. I want to perfect Shunkō before trying to get Bankai, it'll be a lot more useful for me in the second squad. Besides I've only just settled into the Vice-Captain job and it's a little difficult compared to what I'm used to. I don't think I'll be aiming for Captain for a while yet."  
Tōshirō nodded. "Fair enough. Shunkō is the technique that requires that uniform, is it not?"  
"Yeah. My Shunkō's powerful enough that I need to wear this, but I can't really control it yet. I'm training practically every other day so this uniform has practically become my permanent uniform. Not that I mind, I feel like it fits and suits me better anyway."

Tōshirō certainly couldn't argue with that. The top part of it fitted tightly around her torso, as it was backless and shoulder-less it needed to be, so it wouldn't fall off. Not that that would be a bad thing. Tōshirō scolded himself for thinking that way. It was completely inappropriate. As if to save him from his thoughts Rangiku had burst into the office rambling on that she was sorry that she was late. Tōshirō would've been annoyed if it wasn't for the fact that she had stopped him from thinking less than savoury thoughts.

After a somewhat tedious five minute conversation Rangiku and Karin were leaving his office, finally letting him get on with work. Tōshirō said goodbye to them both and spoke to Karin. "It was nice meeting you, you know one-to-one." Karin grinned at him mischievously and winked at him before leaving the office with Rangiku. Tōshirō sighed as he leant back into his chair. She managed to put all of those dirty thoughts back into his head with just a playful grin and a wink. He had a real problem here.


	2. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tōshirō looked over at his girlfriend who was sleeping comfortably beside him. He couldn't help but think back to the time he had figured out that he was in love with her.

No matter how much Tōshirō looked back at the past, he simply could not figure out when he had fallen in love with Karin. He could however, pinpoint exactly when he realised he was in love with Karin. He doubted that he would ever forget it. It happened just under three years ago, in September. He had woken up fairly early that morning, due to the sunlight streaming through the gap in the curtains. The light, bothering his eyes, made him roll over on his side, facing Karin. He saw her sleeping peacefully, her breathing calm and quiet.

Tōshirō gently moved her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her hair. Tōshirō couldn't help but smile at the sight of her. He adored her simple beauty. He thought Karin was more beautiful than any other woman in the world. It was strange really, how much more beautiful and attractive a person could become when their wonderful personality shone through. The more time he spent with her, the more beautiful she became. Tōshirō sighed happily as he drunk in the sight of her sleeping peacefully, her beautiful face illuminated by the sunlight, the white of her pyjamas and the bedsheets suiting her perfectly.

He backed away slightly when he saw her long eyelashes fluttering open, not wanting to surprise her. She blinked a couple times, letting her eyes get used to the light before keeping them open, focusing on the man lying in front of her. She smiled, the happiness obvious in her eyes. Seeing the joy on her face, her form surrounded by white made Tōshirō speculate about the future before he could stop himself from thinking that far ahead. He had heard so many times about the 'typical male response' to commitment. But looking at the happy woman in front of him and thinking about his future with her made him happier than he had been in decades. It was then when he realised that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. It was then when he realised that he didn't just like her a lot, he loved her.

He couldn't for the life of him figure out when he had actually fallen in love with her, but he would never let himself forget when he realised that he was in love her. Karin didn't actually know how he figured out he loved her. He had told her that he loved her, but he never actually told her how and when he realised he was in love with her. It was something he planned to tell her in two weeks time, in his vows, at their wedding.

Tōshirō rolled over to his side to face the woman he loved. Tōshirō smiled at how similar it was to that day just under three years ago. Karin didn't know why he was so insistent on having that date as the date for their wedding, but nevertheless she had obliged. Seeing Karin sleeping peacefully, just like that day three years ago made it feel like it was yesterday. Karin seemed to be a little nervous about the wedding, she wanted it all to go to plan and she was worried that it wasn't going to and something was going to go horribly wrong. Tōshirō wasn't bothered if it didn't go to plan to be honest. Obviously he wanted things to go right for Karin, but he was too excited to think about things that could go wrong. He couldn't wait to marry the love of his life. He couldn't wait to see her dressed in white as they said their vows to each other as the sun was setting. He couldn't wait to see the day's last rays of light illuminating her beautiful face as she said 'I do'. He couldn't wait for her to become Karin Hitsugaya.


	3. Hate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tōshirō was sick of Karin. She never did her work properly & he just couldn't stand her behaviour. He went over to her apartment to tell her if she didn't get her act together she was fired, but he ended up discovering a disturbing scene, causing him concern for her.

Tōshirō felt like putting his fist through a wall. She was just so incredibly irritating. Just seeing her face annoyed him these days. When he first hired Karin Kurosaki she was diligent, always punctual, voluntarily did more than her fair share of work and always dressed appropriately. She was basically the perfect employee. But in the past year her behaviour had gotten completely out of hand and Tōshirō was sick of it. It had been getting worse and worse and worse. While she managed to show up at the right time to start work most morning, she often left whatever time she felt like, sneaking out of the office in more than revealing clothes. On occasion, especially recently, she had shown up drunk (so Tōshirō sent her straight back home again). She barely did what was expected of her, Tōshirō could barely stand the sight of her any more. He wished he had never hired her.

At first, judging from her behaviour, Tōshirō assumed that something bad had happened to Karin or someone close to her, so he let it slide. He couldn't really ask what was going on in her personal life to make sure either, as he was her boss it could've been seen as grossly inappropriate. So he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, as she had been such a good employee for years beforehand. But she just kept on getting worse. In the past two months or so her behaviour had been appalling. Karin had been making his life ten times harder than it needed to be and Tōshirō was more than a little pissed. He grabbed the work that Karin was supposed to complete two days ago (which she had 'forgotten' in her office) and made his way to her apartment, deciding that if she didn't complete this by the end of the week she was fired.

After a 15 minute journey in the car, he had found Karin's apartment building. He looked at the address he had written down before leaving his office. She was on the seventh floor, her apartment being number thirty two. He pushed the number seven in the lift and waited a little impatiently for the lift to take him to the desired floor. When the lift doors opened he confidently strode out towards her apartment, intent on not taking any excuses this time round. He went to knock the door until he realised it was already open. Concern flashed across his face briefly. That wasn't right.

He gently pushed her door open. The concern stayed on his face this time. Her coffee table was smashed to pieces, and other objects here or there were broken or quite obviously displaced. Tōshirō felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he saw a couple of spots of blood on the carpet, the spots creating a trail to what he assumed was a bedroom. Even though he couldn't stand Karin he still couldn't stop himself from being worried. What on earth had happened here? Tōshirō cautiously followed the trail, a little worried that he was going to find the cause of all of the destruction. He looked into the room the blood had led to, which he could only assume was Karin's bedroom. She was sitting on her bed, back facing him, clutching her arm tightly while crying her eyes out.

Tōshirō ran round the bed and over to Karin, suspecting that all the blood had come from her, which now that he saw her properly, clearly had. Karin gasped when she saw him and quickly tried to wipe her tears away. As if her evening wasn't bad enough, her boss had come round to her apartment, no doubt to yell at her, or maybe even fire her. Although judging from the look on Tōshirō's face, he had completely forgotten the original purpose he came over here for.

"What the hell happened to you!?"  
Karin really did not want pity right now, it would just make her feel more pathetic than she already did. She shrugged before speaking. "Nothing."  
Tōshirō would've laughed if the situation wasn't so serious. "Nothing?" He gestured to her injured arm. "You call this nothing!? Your apartment is a bloody mess, both literally and figuratively, and so are you!"  
Karin gave him a death glare at the comment about her being mess. It was true, but she could've done without him knowing that.  
Karin saw the look on Tōshirō's face and knew that he really wasn't screwing around. Neither would he leave without an explanation and making sure he was ok. He was actually too nice for his own good, whether he realised it or not. She sighed heavily before answering him. "I had...A minor setback with my boyfriend. Well, ex-boyfriend."

Tōshirō's eyes narrowed. "Your boyfriend did this to you?" It was disgusting that the man that was supposed to take care of her and love her was the one that did this to her.  
Karin shot him another death glare. "Ex-boyfriend." She sighed, still struggling to stop crying. "Yes. He was the one that did this to me."  
Tōshirō, seeing the state she was currently in decided not to push the issue further, not yet anyway. She looked like she was borderline hysterical, not that he blamed her. "Cmon, you need to go to the hospital."  
Karin scowled. "I can go on my own!"  
Tōshirō scoffed. "And how are you going to fill the forms in when you're bleeding all over them? And that's even if you can write. Your right arm is the one that's injured. If it was your left, I agree, you could go on you own."

To be honest, Tōshirō knew that she could go on her own perfectly easily. If she couldn't fill in a form, a nurse would do it for her. But after seeing the state she was in, he couldn't really leave her on her own. Even if he did hate her. Plus he was more than a little curious as how she got into this state to begin with. And seeing how she didn't argue that much, he could only assume she didn't particularly feel like being left alone either, which Tōshirō understood.

XxXxXxXxXxX

The nurses at the hospital had frantically stopped the bleeding, and temporarily sealed the wound within ten minutes of Karin entering the hospital. She would however have to wait an hour or so for a doctor to come and seal her wound properly, probably with stitches, knowing her luck. She sighed heavily as she sat down on a chair in the waiting room, Tōshirō sitting next to her. Karin had calmed down considerably since he had found her in her apartment, so Tōshirō decided to see if he could find out what had happened.

He turned to face her before asking. "So, why did he do that to you?"  
Karin looked like she was going to cry again. This had really hit her hard. "Because I punched him...It was my fault."  
Tōshirō was confused. Karin didn't seem like the type to punch someone unless she had a good reason, so why was it her fault? "Why did you punch him?"  
Karin scrunched her eyes up tightly as she felt them begin to water. "I found out that he was cheating on me."  
"Oh."  
"With three other women."  
"Oh." Tōshirō had to admit. He did feel like that was a valid reason for punching him. He thought about it for a second. When he went into Karin's bedroom the bed was all messed up. Tōshirō had to stop himself from grimacing. If her boyfriend had cheated on her in her bed that was even worse.

"I just got so annoyed at him. I just ended up punching him. And of course being the hot head that he is he got pissed off and threw me into the coffee table, which is why I have all of these cuts. The big gash in my arm is because he picked up one of the shards and stabbed me with it. Because you know, how dare I discover that he was cheating on me." Tōshirō stayed silent, he had no idea how to respond to that. Tears had starting streaming down Karin's face again. "I feel like such an idiot."  
Tōshirō looked over at her. She almost looked, well, broken. "You're not an idiot."

Karin laughed darkly. "Oh really? I fell for his stupid little game! He was so nice in the beginning. Really romantic, understanding, pretty much everything you'd want in a boyfriend. But the more I liked him, the more distant he became. I kept trying to get his attention, I kept trying to spend as much time as possible with him. The more I liked him, the more he ran away, like he was playing with me. He just kept on getting worse and worse. He kept glaring at me and giving me dirty looks when I said something he disapproved of. He always got angry with me if I said I didn't want to sleep with him. He always belittled me. He made me feel worthless. I feel like...like he put a spell over me or something and this," she pointed at the bandage on her arm, "was a huge wake up call."

Tōshirō stared at her the entire time she said that. Watched her actions and body language. Her behaviour over the past year made so much sense now. This guy really had played her like she was a game. He had made her fall in love with him, just so he could use her. He had manipulated her into making her do what he wanted to do. The worst thing was is he was cheating on her with three other women, and presumably doing the same sort of thing to those women as well, probably just for 'fun'. It was sickening.

All of her actions made sense. The leaving early, the dressing in revealing clothing, arriving drunk, not doing her work. She was doing all she could to get his attention, to spend as much of her time with him as she could, including doing stuff she didn't want to do. He knew from office parties and whatnot that Karin wasn't much of a drinker, and if she did drink then it was only small amounts, but in the past 3 months she had shown up to work drunk out of her mind 7 times. It was all for this man. To try and get his attention. To try and please him. To do what he wanted her to do. To try and get the original, loving man he was in beginning back.

It all sounded far too familiar for his liking as well. It reminded him of his older sister, Momo, who had fallen prey to exactly the same sort of behaviour. Tōshirō looked over to Karin who was wiping her tears with her sleeves, trying to stop crying. He felt bad for shouting at her all of those times when she didn't do her work. He should've just investigated into her home life, regardless of the risks. He had seen this happen before and it sucked, seeing it happen again. How could he have ever hated this poor woman? She was a wonderful employee before this had all happened and he enjoyed working with her, but as she got worse he ended up hating here. But finding all of this out, what had happened to it, the scenario similar to what had happened to his sister, the reasons why she did all of those things...he just couldn't hate her any more. He hated this jerk she used to 'date'. He hated him for using Karin, for toying with her, for changing her.

The happiness and determination that once filled her eyes looked like they had been sucked out. Her spirit seemed broken. Tōshirō could barely stand the sight of her, but for completely different reasons to the ones he felt earlier on in the day. Her expression was exactly the same as Momo's, when this had happened to her. After hearing what had happened to Karin, almost in an instant Tōshirō felt like an idiot for hating her. He couldn't even think about hating her any more. If anything just because he reminded him of his sister, who he dearly loved. The huge amount of pity he had for her wasn't helping either.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Tōshirō sighed as he closed the front door of Karin's apartment, thoroughly exhausted. He waited with her the entire time she was in the hospital, and he wanted to make sure she got home safely. The doctor saw no point in putting her under anaesthetic for a couple of stitches in her arm, so he had injected her arm with powerful painkillers that lasted about ten minutes while he stitched her arm up, and then he gave her powerful painkillers to be taken orally afterwards. They were very effective, but they had made her a little woozy, so Tōshirō wanted to see to it himself that she got into the apartment safely. He had sat her down on her sofa before going into the bedroom to change the sheets, disgusted while doing so. It looked like her ex-boyfriend had cheated on her in her own bed.

He didn't particularly want to change the dirty sheets, but he knew it wasn't going to do Karin any good to sleep in the same sheets he had cheated on her in. He found some spare bed sheets in a cupboard and put them on the bed. By the time he was finished Karin had already fallen asleep. Tōshirō carefully lifted her up and carried her over to the bedroom, gently putting her in the bed and pulling the covers over her. After that he cleared up the living room a bit, not wanting Karin to injure herself on the shards of the coffee table again. He also took out the photos of her and her now ex-boyfriend, knowing that seeing those wouldn't do her any good.

Before he left the apartment he wrote her letter explaining everything that had happened, as the doctor had warned that the painkillers could possibly cause her to forget what had happened, however unlikely it was. He went into detail, and explained that if she knew what was good for her, she wouldn't go anywhere near her ex-boyfriend again. In the letter he told her to take a couple of days off work to recover, and he left her his personal phone number, and his sister's, as Momo had gone through and recovered from the same sort of thing. Tōshirō knew that Momo would be more than happy to help her if Karin decided she wanted it.

He sighed as he leant against Karin's apartment door. He couldn't lock it, because there was only one set of keys. He would either have to lock them both in, which was a problem because Tōshirō really needed to get home, or he would have to lock her in and take the keys with him, and wake up very early to unlock the door so she wasn't trapped. It was just a lot easier to keep the door unlocked. The thing is, he wasn't convinced she was safe. What if her ex-boyfriend came back to her apartment? He felt like it was unlikely, but it was still a possibility. He was afraid to leave her alone. Tōshirō looked at his watch. It had gone past one in the morning. He had to work early in the morning.

Tōshirō walked along the apartment corridor and heard noise coming from one of them. He figured he could at least ask. He knocked on the door. A woman with quite a young, upset child in her arms opened the door. Tōshirō was about to tell her that it didn't matter, but he spotted what he assumed was this woman's partner in the kitchen warming up milk. Tōshirō hoped that meant that they could help him. He wouldn't feel right asking the woman to help him if she was on her own. She had to look after her son. But thankfully that wasn't the case.

A little awkwardly, he explained what had happened to Karin and asked if the couple could watch out for noises in Karin's apartment, in case her ex-boyfriend came back. The fairly new parents, judging from the baby, had agreed, the mother looking particularly horrified at what had happened. The woman explained that she and her husband woke up pretty easily at the minute due to their child always needing something, so they should be able to wake up and help Karin if she needed it. Tōshirō thanked the couple profusely being setting off to go home to his own apartment.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Well it had taken her a while, but Karin had managed to get her life back together, and was starting to get over her bastard of an ex-boyfriend. It had been difficult, after all they had been together for just under two years, but Tōshirō's sister was helping her through it. The two of them had become good friends. Momo had given her some very useful suggestions, all of which she had tried. Get busy with work, take up a hobby or two, have a proper tidy up or redecorate her apartment, she had done all of them. Keeping herself distracted had helped Karin a lot, because the more she thought about what had happened, the more pathetic and useless she felt, which didn't help her at all.

She buried herself with work, catching up on the stuff she didn't do, taking on projects she wouldn't normally do, she even went on a business trip to England, which was much more fun than she expected it to be. Due to focusing on her ex-boyfriend for so long she had lost a fair few friends, but on the trip she found herself making friends with her colleagues. She felt like Tōshirō had set it up and she knew she should've been annoyed, but honestly, she was grateful for it.

She had taken up football again, having abandoned it when she moved to the city she was currently in. Not intentionally, but it had happened. She had managed to get on a five-a-side team, which again led her to making more friends. Karin had ended up taking up cooking as well, trying out recipes that her sister sent her. She messed up occasionally and she wasn't as good as Yuzu, but she felt like she had made a good start.

Karin had also ended up redecorating her apartment. Momo had suggested spring cleaning, or maybe repainting a room or two, but she ended up going all out. She really wanted a change, and whenever she looked at what her apartment used to look like, she was reminded of what had happened in it. Besides she was sick of the old look anyway. Karin had sold the majority of her old furniture and bought new ones (including a new coffee table that wasn't mainly made out of glass). She re-carpeted the floors as they were bloodstained, and painted all of the rooms. The living room now had cream walls with red curtains and sofas, and her bedroom was now cream as well, save for one wall behind her bed which was now teal, which had curtains and bedding to match. It had been a few months now, and she was coping. She wished she could progress faster, but Momo had told her this is something you can't rush and she was doing remarkably well.

Karin sighed as it became apparent that there was no one in the apartment she was knocking the door of. She looked at her watch, figured it wouldn't be too long till he got here and sat down neatly on the floor, pulling a book out of her bag. Karin had managed to read a few pages before getting distracted by her own thoughts. She made a mental note of the page she was on and put the book back in her bag. She supposed Momo was right. She was doing pretty well, all things considered. She sighed, a little edgy waiting for the owner of the apartment she was leaning against to arrive home. The fact that she had managed to get a crush on someone was particularly impressive, or at least Momo had said so.

Karin was a little frightened that it was a rebound thing though. Momo had encouraged her to go after the guy she liked but Karin refused. She didn't want to start dating him to then find that the spark she thought was there actually wasn't within a few months. Besides, she couldn't really date him anyway. Even if she wanted to. Which she didn't. It just wouldn't work. She wasn't completely sure a relationship would work between the two, never spending that much time with each other anyway, and it would be near impossible to date him anyway. Unfortunately it was a little hard to forget about him, regardless of how hard she tried.

She looked up from the floor when she heard footsteps coming towards her. 'Speak of the devil.' The guy looked a little surprised to find her there.  
"Karin! What are you doing here?"  
Karin stood up from the floor and fished out a large folder out of her bag. "You said you needed this by today, so I'm giving it to you."  
He took the folder out of her hands. "Well yes, but why didn't you come to the office instead?"  
"I wouldn't have been able to arrive in time, it was too far away. I had to go and copy some of the sheets, and get some of them laminated and after I finished that there wasn't enough time to get to the office. It's like 20 minutes away from here right?"

He nodded. "Yeah."  
"Exactly. I needed to give this to you, and by the time I would've gotten to the office you would've already left. So I decided to come here."  
"Well, fair enough I suppose, but...How do you know my address?"  
"Momo gave it to me."  
"Ah." He should've known.  
"Well anyway Sir, I should probably go. Hopefully the project is ok."  
"I should hope so, you don't usually spend this time on projects. You're cutting it pretty close, deadline-wise."  
"Yeah I know. Sorry about that Sir."

Tōshirō shook his head. "It's fine. You got it to me in the end, thank you Kurosaki."  
Karin rolled her eyes at the name, she wasn't too fond of being called that. "You know you can call me Karin."  
"I shouldn't. You work for me, I should refer to you formally."  
"You speak as if we're in the office."  
"I see your point, but my point still stands."  
Karin rolled her eyes again. "You're hopeless. But anyway I should go."  
"Very well, Kurosaki."

Karin glared at him when he emphasised her surname, causing him to smirk. "You know it's all well and good being all formal and official with names and whatnot, but surely teasing like that would draw more attention to the idea of us not just working together, you know?"  
Tōshirō shrugged. "We're not in the office. You were the one who pointed that out."  
Karin almost succeeded in keeping the grin off her face. Almost. "Oh, so it's ok to flirt with me now?"  
"...Maybe."  
Karin smirked before swiftly turning 180 degrees and saying "See you on Monday Sir." as she was confidently striding away.

Yeah...Tōshirō really didn't hate her any more.


	4. Miracle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tōshirō couldn't stop staring at the girl in his arms. Everything about her amazed him. He was so fascinated by her. She was his miracle.

He couldn't stop staring at the newborn baby in his arms. He always thought that the phrase 'miracle of life' was overused, but that sentiment had gone out of the window now. He knew that it was cheesy, but he couldn't help but think the infant in his arms was a miracle.

Tōshirō knew how biology and genetics worked. Not in huge amounts of detail, but he knew enough. He knew how a baby developed from a mass of cells and DNA into an actual child, but regardless of that he still ended up amazed at the result. A fairly small newborn child, with a not quite full head of black hair, with large, bright turquoise eyes which were staring back at him. It didn't really surprise him that the baby was small (given how small he was when he was a child, and Karin wasn't exactly tall either), but he honestly didn't expect the baby to be so light. It was strange. Not only was he actually holding a real life newborn baby, he was holding his baby.

Karin was sleeping now, in a room away from all the noise, exhausted after being in labour for 13 hours, leaving Tōshirō alone with the child. His baby girl. When family members and friends came in to see the baby, the little girl kept her eyes opened wide, fascinated by all of the different people walking into the room. Tōshirō introduced all of them to her, honestly surprised that she was managing to stay awake for so long. 'Then again the bright colours were probably keeping her interested' he mused. When Renji held the little baby she had tried to grab his hair a couple of times.

By the time things had quieted down and visitors had left, his daughter had fallen into a deep sleep. Tōshirō wrapped her warmly in a blanket and set her down gently in the cot that Unohana had lovingly provided. The fourth squad captain had seemed quite excited at the prospect of having another child running around.

The little girl had been born over an hour ago now, and he still couldn't stop staring at her. Her eyes were gorgeous. A lot brighter and much more full of curiosity than his, despite that being where she got them from. She had inherited her skin and hair from her mother, the fluffy strands on her head being exactly the same shade of Karin's hair. He wasn't completely sure, but it looked like his daughter had inherited Karin's bone structure as well. Admittedly, Tōshirō was completely biased, but he knew that his daughter would be amazingly beautiful. Hell, she already was.

Even though he knew the processes of reproduction, and the development of a child in the womb, and he knew that because of how genetics and DNA worked his child was obviously going to look similar to himself or his wife Karin, but he simply couldn't stop himself from being amazed. He knew it was cliché and cheesy, but he did honestly feel like the 'miracle of life' was a valid phrase now. He leant down and gently stroked his daughters cheek and smiled. This little girl in front of him, his baby, his daughter, was his own little miracle.


	5. Scarf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toshiro sat down on the roof, taking in the scene before having his attention drawn away by a certain Kurosaki. After a while of sitting outside, Toshiro started to feel the cold. Karin was only too happy help.

Tōshirō sat down on the Kurosaki clinic's roof and sighed heavily. It had been a long day. It felt even longer than usual because the sun had set so early, due to it being winter. A small layer of snow had coated Karakura, it twinkling in the light emitting from the lamp posts dotted around the streets. Tōshirō took in the scene, enjoying the sight. He had never been to Karakura in the winter before. He had to admit, the city looked beautiful with all of the snow and lights.

A sudden voice from behind him made him jump and almost slide off the roof, causing the voice to giggle slightly. Tōshirō turned round and gave the girl a glare, although there was no intent behind them. It was nice to see her again. Karin carefully made her way over to the shinigami and sat down beside him. "Hey."  
"Hey."  
Karin stared at the scenery before speaking again. "How long are you staying this time?"  
"Only a few days. I'll probably leave on Wednesday."  
"Oh."  
Tōshirō could practically feel the disappointment in her voice, making him feel a little guilty. "Sorry."  
Karin shook her head. "It's not your fault."

The two sat there in awkward silence, neither knowing what to say to the other for a while, until eventually Karin spoke up again. "Aren't you cold like that?"  
"Hmm? Like what?"  
Karin pointed to his clothes. "In your shinigami uniform. It looks really thin."  
"It's isn't that bad, besides it has to get pretty cold for me to feel it."  
"Oh I suppose it would, ice sword and all."  
"Yeah."

Tōshirō looked at Karin properly, the first time in months. Her hair had gotten longer and wasn't tied up, he assumed to help keep her ears and neck warm. She was wearing a thick jumper, thick black leggings and denim shorts. She didn't seem very cold, which had surprised him. Her voice snapped him away from his thoughts.  
"Are you sure you're not cold? You have goosebumps."  
Tōshirō looked down. So he had.

Without warning Karin had gone back into the house, making Tōshirō wonder what she was doing. About five minutes later she appeared on the roof again, this time with two mugs in her hands and a scarf wrapped very loosely around her neck. She handed him both of the mugs with a quick "Hold these" before she pulled the scarf from her neck and leaning down and delicately wrapped it around his neck.

The scarf didn't help much, but he smiled at the gesture. After Karin had sat down she carefully took one of the mugs off him and told him to drink while it was still hot. He obliged, the hot liquid warming him up a bit. The two of them sat in silence, both drinking their tea while admiring the view. After a while he finished and handed Karin the mug before standing up carefully so he wouldn't slip on the ice. "I should go."  
Karin nodded. "Ok."  
Tōshirō couldn't stop himself from seeing the slight hint of sadness in her eyes. He started to pull off the scarf around his neck before seeing Karin shake her head.

"Keep it. The scarf doesn't really match any of clothes any more and I have another one. I actually can't remember the last time I wore it."  
Tōshirō paused for a moment before nodding. "Thank you Kurosaki."  
Karin rolled her eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you, call me Karin."  
"Fine, thank you Karin."  
She smiled brightly at him, and before he realised what he was doing he found himself smiling back. He swore her smile was infectious.

He gave her a small wave before shunpoing over to Orihime's place, where he found Rangiku and Orihime cooking together. 'Oh joy.' Rangiku had heard Tōshirō come into the house and turned to greet him.  
"Captain! Where did you get that scarf? It suits you!"  
"I...Was given it."  
Rangiku had a sly look on her face, correctly assuming that it was Karin who had given it to him.

Orihime politely asked Tōshirō to wash himself up for dinner, and he, not really being able to refuse her request, made his way to her bathroom. While washing his hands at the sink he looked up and caught sight of his reflection. Tōshirō stared at the mirror. Rangiku was right, the scarf did suit him, or at least he thought so. It was a fashion scarf rather than one to keep you warm, but it worked well with his hair and eyes, the scarf being a colour in between white and turquoise. He actually quite liked it, and so he decided to keep it on. However it was hard to ignore how it smelled like Karin. It was even harder to ignore the fact that that meant he knew what Karin smelled like.

Regardless he kept it on. For months actually. Obviously he took it off with the rest of his clothes to shower and whatnot, but basically, he kept it on all of the time. It had practically become part of his uniform (which he realised, did not go unnoticed by a certain Vice-Captain). Despite that, he continued to wear it everyday. Almost eight months after he last saw Karin, Tōshirō, along with other shinigami, were ordered to go to the human world to give Ichigo his shinigami powers and to assist him with the fullbringers.

After all of the fights had been won and everything had calmed down the shinigami had ended up running into Ichigo's family and friends. (Which ended up being rather awkward because Yuzu still couldn't see them, and she was the only one who couldn't, so the poor girl had a bit of rough time trying to figure out what on earth was going on.) Tōshirō was a little surprised to see all of the humans there, but was more surprised at Karin's appearance. He knew that humans grew and developed very quickly, compared to shinigami anyway, but it really was surprising how much one girl could change in eight months. Although, that being said, Rangiku had always said that girls grew up quickly and before boys.

It was obviously Karin, but a lot of the puppy fat had melted away from her face (although her cheeks still showed a little bit of chubbiness), she was taller by and inch or two, adding length to her already long legs, and well, she was a lot more 'endowed' than she was before. He would've liked to think that he didn't notice, but it was kinda hard not to. She looked a lot older than she did eight months ago. He glanced at Karin one more time before paying attention to the rest of the group. 'She's already growing up'. The thought made him a little sad, it reminded him of what he felt was likely to happen in the future. She was going to grow up, go to school, get a job and forget about him. He was going to be this young for a while yet, while she was barely a child any more.

When Karin spotted Tōshirō she grinned. Tōshirō saw it out of the corner of his eye and he tried not to notice how happy it made him to see her smile like that. He saw her grin widen as she spotted her (well his now) scarf around his neck. Tōshirō, not being able to resist, turned his attention to her fully gave her a very brief smile before turning to the group again. It was clear that it made her happy that he was still wearing the scarf she had given him. The thought made him smile.


	6. Wish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karin reflects on the time she had spent with Toshiro and ends up making a wish. A certain someone overhears her.

Karin bit back a sigh as she watched Tōshirō leave again. It sucked. She hated watching him leave. She had a lot of friends at school, and she spent time with a fair few of them outside of school, she got on with them really well, but nobody seemed to understand her like Tōshirō did. Tōshirō knew all about hollows and shinigami, with him being one. He was the one person she could talk to about almost anything, and he was the one person who seemed to actually understand what she was saying, what her problems were and why they were problems, unlike other people who told her she was just overreacting.

And as they were basically from two different worlds, the conversation always stayed interesting. She loved talking to him, and as he was always more vocal with her or Rangiku than anyone else she saw him with, she assumed he liked talking with her too. She absent-mindedly wondered if Tōshirō was more confident and comfortable with women rather than men. It would make sense, given that he was brought up by his grandmother along with Momo. And then went on to have Rangiku as a Vice-Captain. He probably spent more of his time with women than men. Even though Tōshirō had started to get to know Karin's football team more, he pretty much stuck to talking to Karin rather than anyone else.

Hearing about his life was interesting, and she loved to hear him speak about it, especially after Rangiku had told her that he rarely opened up about his past, or himself for that matter. Every time she heard something new she felt like she knew him better, like the way that he acted or the way he was made more sense. Like he was explained a little more. She felt like she understood him better every time he talked about something.

She wished she could hear more about him, that she could talk to him more, that she could spend more time with him. She sighed heavily as she leant against her windowsill, looking up at the night sky. Out of the corner of her eyes she spotted a shooting star. Karin was never one for superstition, but...it wasn't like there was any harm in it, was there? Staring up at the shooting star, she spoke quietly. "I wish I could spend more time with Toshiro."

Little did she know that Rangiku was sitting on the roof, listening to her wish. Rangiku grinned. She was already planning a 'surprise vacation' to Karakura for a couple of weeks (if she managed to pull the right strings that is) for her dear little Captain.


	7. Play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Throughout her young life, whenever someone asked Karin who Toshiro was, she told them that he played with her sometimes. One day, she stops describing him as such, making Toshiro wonder why. AU.

(Karin: age 5, Tōshirō: age 9)

Tōshirō stood patiently in the playground, waiting for the classroom door to open. Ichigo usually picked up the girls from school, but he hadn't been around for the past week. No one in the Kurosaki family were themselves any more. Their mother had died very recently, and out of all of the family, Ichigo probably took it the hardest. He was barely around, only really coming home to eat and sleep. He spent most of his time down by a local river, near where Masaki had died. As Ichigo hadn't been around to pick the twins up from school, Isshin had been doing it instead, but the clinic had been especially busy today, so he had asked Tōshirō to pick them up instead. He agreed, wanting to make the family's time easier as much as he could at the minute.

Tōshirō's eyes darted at to the classroom door as he saw it being opened out of the corner of his eye. He watched as a kind looking teacher opened the door and let the kids out of the classroom one by one, making sure that they were being picked up by someone trustworthy. After about seven children or so, Karin and Yuzu were let out of the classroom at the same time and Tōshirō made his way forward to them. Yuzu waved at him and ran up to him, she had been trying to keep a brave face for the past couple of days now. Karin was less enthusiastic.

Before Karin made her way to Tōshirō her teacher stopped her, not recognising Tōshirō. She was a little put off by the 'bleached hair', so she wanted to check that the twins definitely knew him, although it looked like they did. "Karin, who is that boy?"  
Karin looked up at her teacher before shrugging. "He's my brother's friend...He...Sometimes he plays with me."  
Her teacher nodded with a smile. "Ok then, have a good evening dear."  
Karin nodded and waved shyly at her teacher before walking towards Tōshirō who was waiting calmly for her. He was holding hands with Yuzu, and Yuzu had her free hand outstretched for Karin to hold. Tōshirō took Karin's school bad off her and slung it round his left arm along with Yuzu's bag. He waited for Karin to hold hands with Yuzu before he started walking them home.

XxXxXxXxXxX

(Karin: age 8, Tōshirō age: 12)

Karin jumped slightly as she heard the front door of the clinic slam. Distracted from the TV and being curious about who came into the clinic, even though it was supposed to be closed (her dad always was too nice). She walked into the clinic section of the house and saw her dad helping Tōshirō limp over to a bed which he sat down on, a little awkwardly. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she walked over to the two of them, asking what had happened. Concern settled on her face when her dad told her that Tōshirō had a sprained ankle as well as a small gash on his right shin.

Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, not unnoticed by Tōshirō. "What are you so upset about?"  
"How did you even do that?"  
"Playing football."  
"Why would you play a game where you can get hurt like that?"  
Tōshirō rolled his eyes. "What's the matter Kurosaki, afraid of a little danger? There are a lot of things where you can get hurt, pretty much all sport is dangerous in some way, but football's fun."  
Karin scoffed. "Yeah right. How can a dangerous game be fun?"  
Tōshirō rolled his eyes again as he watched Isshin wrapped his ankle tightly in a bandage so he could walk on it a bit easier. "Look I'll show you when my foot heals. Football's really fun."  
Karin shrugged. "Whatever."

After Tōshirō left the clinic with Ichigo, who went with him to make sure he could get home ok, Isshin turned to Karin. "Since when did you know Tōshirō so well?"  
"Huh? What do you mean?"  
"You're generally shy, or at least you don't talk like that with people you're not comfortable with."  
"Oh..." Karin shrugged. "He plays with me sometimes."  
"Oh I see."

Over a week later, Tōshirō walked home with Ichigo after school on a Wednesday. Mainly because Isshin had told him to come back so he could make sure that his foot and shin were healing properly. Tōshirō didn't really think it was necessary, but honestly he wanted to teach Karin about football anyway. Even though she was a lot younger, she was fun to spend time with.

After Isshin had checked Tōshirō's injuries, he, Ichigo and Karin walked to a local park and the two boys started teaching her the basics. Karin had found the rules a little difficult to grasp at first, but now they had been playing for 15 minutes or so she was started to get the gist. Suddenly Ichigo said in a panicky tone that he had to go because he had completely forgotten about homework that was due in tomorrow. Tōshirō would've rolled his eyes, but if he was honest he had been guilty of doing that too. Tōshirō doubted that there was a student alive who hadn't forgotten about their homework at least once.  
Karin shook her head as she watched Ichigo run back home. Tōshirō walked over to her. "So do you want to continue?"  
"Sure!"

Tōshirō couldn't help but smile as he realised how much fun she was having. It made him happy, knowing that the same hobby he enjoyed was something she enjoyed too. She wasn't bad either. Not brilliant, but he didn't expect a great performance from her given that this was her first time trying. After half an hour Karin started complaining that she was tired, so Tōshirō walked her home. Before walking into the house Tōshirō asked her a question. "So did you like playing football?"  
"Yeah! You were right, it is fun!"  
"See I told you."  
Karin nodded. "Hey Tōshirō?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Can you play with me again?"  
Tōshirō gave her a genuine smile. "Sure."

XxXxXxXxXxX

(Karin: age 10, Tōshirō: age 14)

Tōshirō pulled out his phone as he heard a short sound coming from it. As he started writing a reply to the text he got, he bumped into someone. He put his phone back in his pocket and held his hand out to the girl he ended up knocking down. The girl took his hand and pulled herself up. Tōshirō was about to go back to his own business until he heard a small "Oh!" coming from the girl. He turned and finally looked at her properly, realising who it was.  
"Oh, I haven't seen you in a while."  
Karin gave him a smile. "You too! What have you been up to lately?"  
Tōshirō shrugged. "Nothing much. School mainly."  
Karin nodded. "Do you still play football?"  
"Yeah, I'm on the school team, why?"

"Me and my friends have a match coming up against some middle schoolers. I mean it's only fair if we have middle school players too right?"  
Tōshirō looked up at her. He was slightly worried that she was starting to make a habit out of getting herself into trouble, like her brother. 15 and already getting into situations he shouldn't be. He didn't want Karin to be doing the same thing. Regardless, he didn't really want to be involved. "Sorry, I'm busy."  
Karin pulled her face. "No way! You gotta help, you're so good! I could do with your help.  
"Sorry Kurosaki."  
A frown appeared on Karin's face as she watched him leave. "Tch. When did he get so rude? Stupid teenage boys."

A couple days later, Tōshirō was making his way home when he spotted some kids playing football out of the corner of his eye. Realising that Karin was involved, he got closer to the pitch, watching the match, but still staying hidden, still not really wanting to get involved. From what he gathered the match with the middle schoolers was over something petty, so not something to really worry about, much to Tōshirō's relief. His attention was dragged away from his thoughts as he saw one of the older players trip up Karin. He narrowed his eyes, noticing that the older player simply didn't care that he had just injured a little girl. Tōshirō got closer to the pitch, wanting to make sure Karin was ok.

He watched carefully as she managed to get herself up, but he could see her struggling to support her own weight, wincing every time she took a step on her right foot. Tōshirō sighed as he walked to the edge of the pitch, making himself known. Karin had a big grin on her face when she spotted him. "Tōshirō! You came!"  
"Yeah yeah, do you want me to help or not?"  
Karin nodded and gestured him to join in.

The two teams continued playing, Tōshirō closing the gap between the scores. After 20 minutes, the two teams were drawing. Karin and the rest of her team were seriously impressed with Tōshirō's game play. With barely 2 minutes left for the match, Tōshirō passed to Karin, telling her to score the last goal. Karin nodded and went for it, succeeding in shooting the football past the goalie and straight into the goal. Karin's team spent the last minute of the game making sure the the other team didn't get another goal. When the timer went off Karin's team cheered, happy that they had managed to win against an older team. Karin grinned as she watched the rest of the team celebrate before turning to Tōshirō. "Hey, thanks for helping. And you know, letting me score the last goal."  
"It was nothing. I'll see you later."  
Karin nodded and waved at him. Tōshirō waved back briefly before making his way back home.

After Karin watched him leave the pitch she turned round and ran over to her team while shouting. "Yeah! Good job guys!"  
The rest of her team grinned. "You too!"  
"Yeah you were good too Kurosaki!"  
"But wow that guy with the bleached hair was so good!"  
"Yeah! How do you know such a good player Karin?"  
Karin shrugged. "He plays with me sometimes."

XxXxXxXxXxX

(Karin: age 15, Tōshirō: age 18)

Karin sighed as she pulled out her phone out of her skirt pocket. She and her friends had decided to dress up a bit and go out to celebrate the end of middle school. It was the summer holidays now, and they had a month and a half until high school. It had been a great evening, but for somehow they had ended up getting split up. Normally she wouldn't worry, but the group had decided to go with her friend Erika's suggestion of going to a certain restaurant in a part of town Karin wasn't particularly aware of. As she didn't know the area, coupled with it was starting to get a little dark and she was wearing a skirt, Karin started to feel a little uneasy.

She dialled Tōshirō's number into her phone and waited for the call to go through. Yuzu didn't know the area either so there was no point in calling her. Karin knew that her dad was busy so it seemed unfair to call him when she could call someone else. Ichigo was now in university in Tokyo, so it was pointless calling him either. So in the end she had decided on Tōshirō, even though she hadn't seen him in a while, she knew he would help her out. He always did in the end.

After a short phone call Tōshirō agreed to come pick her up, not wanting her to get hurt (nor wanting to face Ichigo's wrath if he did let her get hurt). Karin had given him a general idea of where she was, but not really detailed as she didn't know the area very well. He parked in a free space on the side of a small road and got out, hoping that he'd be able to find her soon, it had taken him 20 minutes to drive to this area as it was, he didn't want it take much longer.

10 minutes or so later he had found her, with a couple of her friends. 'So they managed to find each other again anyway'. Tōshirō sighed, it wasn't really a wasted journey, as it was getting dark and she should really be getting home anyway, but it was a little annoying. Regardless, he walked over to her and told her that he would take her home, which she agreed to, saying she didn't want to make Yuzu worry. Before the two of them left to find the car, one of Karin's friends grabbed her arm, which Tōshirō didn't notice and continued walking. "Hey, who is that? Your boyfriend? He's really cute!"  
Karin stuttered slightly. "What? Oh, no he's not my boyfriend."  
Another one of her friends pouted. "What? But you two would look great together!"  
"How do you know him then?"

Karin looked over to Tōshirō who had now stopped and was waiting for her, a little impatiently. Karin cringed, realising that he probably heard the conversation. "He...He's just one of my brother's friends. We hang out sometimes."  
"Aww, that's boring!"  
"You should totally ask him out!"  
Karin's eyes went wide. "What? No way!" She looked over to Tōshirō again who now had a raised eyebrow. "Oh jeez. I should go."

After a couple of goodbyes Karin walked away from the group and started walking side by side with Tōshirō. They made their way to Tōshirō's car, having a simple conversation on the way. The usual stuff, how have you been, what are you doing at the minute, how's school, and so forth. When they got settled into the car Tōshirō couldn't help but ask. "Out of interest, why did you say that we hang out sometimes?"  
"...Because we do?"  
"No I mean, that's the first time I've ever heard you say hang out sometimes instead of play with you sometimes."  
Karin laughed before replying with a smirk on her face. "You do realise I'm not a kid any more right? The word 'play' has a slightly different meaning these days. If I said play, they would've gotten the wrong idea, you know?"

Tōshirō looked at her, a little surprised. He had always looked at her as a little girl, as Ichigo's little sister, but he supposed that wasn't true any more. She was certainly Ichigo's younger sister, but not little. Tōshirō shrugged it off. "Fair point". He turned the car engine on and started driving towards the Kurosaki household. It didn't take them long, as there was less traffic on the road now. They reached her house and she smiled. "Thanks Tōshirō!"  
"Yeah yeah, don't worry about it. Just don't think you can use me as a taxi service all the time."  
Karin laughed. "But wouldn't you get paid that way?"  
Tōshirō smiled slightly. "That's true. But you know what I mean."  
Karin nodded and waved. "See ya Tōshirō."

Tōshirō gave a small wave back and watched her leave, wanting to make sure she got into the house ok. Watching her walk into her house made him realise. She really wasn't a little girl any more. She had long hair now, a mature face, slender figure, long legs, well, she was practically an adult. A gorgeous one at that. Unsurprisingly, Karin took after her mother. Tōshirō felt like slamming his head into the steering wheel as he realised what he was thinking about. She was too young. She was 4 years younger than him. Well, three and a half, but that didn't justify it! Tōshirō rested his head on the car seat. Why did she have to make it blindingly obvious that she wasn't a little girl any more? Tōshirō bit back a groan as he realised he was attracted to his friend's little sister. That couldn't lead to anything good.


	8. Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karin loved the stars that were scattered across the night sky. But she also hated them. All because of a certain shinigami.

Karin both loved and hated looking at the stars. There were many reasons she loved them. They were beautiful, fascinating, and well, the entire concept of a star was spectacular. A huge flaming ball of gas and fire in the middle of space, a vacuum. How was that not amazing? That was how Karin felt anyway. But the main reason she loved the stars is because of what happened underneath them.

It was two years ago now, when she was 14. She had ended up spending the entire day shopping with Tōshirō because he desperately needed new human clothes as he had outgrown his old ones and he really had no idea about human fashion. Despite how much both of them hated shopping they ended up having a good time. It had actually been a pretty average, fun day, until around half 7 in the evening a hollow attacked. It kinda worried Karin that it didn't really surprise her any more. Hollow attacks weren't really terrifying any more either. Well they were scary, but due to Urahara's products and her own skill barely any hollows went near her and if they did she could defeat them. It was rare for a powerful hollow to come to the human world.

When the hollow did try to attack them, she pretty much knew what to do. She ducked out of the way while Tōshirō defeated it. Simple, and effective. Barely 5 minutes later and the hollow was gone. Karin got back out from her hiding place, Tōshirō offered her his hand, which she gladly took, pushing herself up from the ground. They started walking to Karin's house, with the aim of taking Karin home, but Karin had stopped Tōshirō when she caught sight of the view. She went over and sat on the railing and started pointing out constellations, much to Tōshirō's amusement. He hadn't realised she was so interested in stars. He sat down next to her, admiring the view as well. After Karin had stopped talking the two of them fell in comfortable silence.

Karin couldn't quite remember what happened afterwards. All she knew is that in that moment she decided to take a risk, and kiss him. She couldn't really remember leading up to it or anything, she just ended up kissing him, briefly, in the lips. She remembered being horrified that she had made a mistake and not being able to look at Tōshirō, not knowing what his reaction was. She was just staring at the grass, waiting for him to do something. A few moments later, he did. He gently tipped her head up and kissed her gently back before resuming his previous position. Karin smiled and looked over to Tōshirō, who had a blush on his face. She couldn't stop herself from grinning, causing Tōshirō to smile as well.

Karin sighed. Ever since that happened, two years ago, she had associated the stars with Tōshirō. Which was the real reason she really loved the stars, because they reminded her of him. But that was exactly the same reason why she hated them as well. They reminded her of how much she missed him. All the time. It wasn't impossible to have a long distance relationship, far from it in fact, but it was difficult and it did take a lot of hard work. It used to be fine, but seeing him only a few times a year was getting harder and harder, and the stars weren't making it any easier.

Karin pulled out her phone from her back pocket and brought up Tōshirō's number on the screen. She was debating with herself, wondering whether she should call him or not, when a voice from behind her made her jump.  
"Staring at the phone isn't going to make it ring you know."  
Karin's eyes lit up as she realised who it was and she spun round. "Tōshirō!"  
He gave her a genuine smile. "Hey."

Karin made her way over to him in one fluid movement and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him. Almost instinctively, Tōshirō hugged her closer to him. After Karin pulled away Tōshirō couldn't stop himself from asking. "Why didn't you just call me if you wanted to?"  
Karin looked down guiltily. "I wasn't sure I should."  
Tōshirō had to admit, he was a little confused. "Why not?"  
'Shit.' Karin could feel all of her doubts start to come up, and she knew that everything was going to come out, whether she wanted it to or not. "Was...Was this relationship really a good idea?"  
Tōshirō's heart sank. "What are you talking about?"

"It's just...I mean this was really really great to begin with you know? We went over the problems at the beginning and decided we'd be ok. But I feel the problems might be becoming more...problematic? Look two years ago I was still a kid. I'm 16 now. I'm currently figuring out career prospects and that sort of thing. In two years time I'll be in university. After that I'll be in a job. I'll be an full grown adult. I mean yeah, you've grown a lot in the last couple of years, and I know you're mature and all, but...I'm growing a lot quicker than you. And I can feel that's going to start being a problem soon. Not to mention the fact that I barely see you. Which is really hard. I know that hasn't changed at all since the beginning but I guess my perspective has? I have some friends older than me, only by a couple years and two of them are already living with their partners. But...We can never do that. We live in two separate worlds. We wouldn't be able to live together, or get married, or anything...So...Isn't this just a waste of time? I feel like it's not leading anywhere any more."

By the time she had finished speaking she was crying. She didn't mean to, she really didn't want to either, but it just sort of happened. She wasn't even sure when she started crying. All of her doubts, her worries, her stress, was coming out at once, and she knew this was either going to strengthen their relationship, or end it. And she had an awful feeling that the latter would happen. He was a shinigami, a Captain no less, and she was just a human. It wasn't illegal for such relationships to happen, but the reason they weren't illegal was because they weren't really feasible. Either he had to give up being a shinigami, or she had to become one. Karin could feel more tears coming. She couldn't see a way this was going to work any more.

Tōshirō looked like he was lost for words. He wasn't surprised that she was worried about this to be honest, but he didn't realise how serious these issues had become for her. And it made sense that they had become serious issues. Her point about some of her friends already living with their partners really drove it home for Tōshirō. She was heading into the adult world pretty rapidly. Tōshirō felt his insides twist and turn as he realised that she had a point. He did not want her to become a shinigami, he had made that clear to her already, and honestly she didn't seem like she wanted to either. And there was no way in hell that he was going to let her do something as drastic as becoming a shinigami when she didn't really want to. But...He couldn't really give up being a shinigami. He was a Captain. Everyone he knew and loved was in Soul Society, except for Karin.

He wasn't sure the relationship was the best idea any more either. It was actually completely unfair to both of them. She couldn't have a normal relationship, she would never get married or have kids, or anything like that she wanted to do because he was off in another world. And it was incredibly selfish of him to keep her attached to him when he simply couldn't offer her any of them. Then there was the fact that she indeed, growing a lot quicker than him. In 30 years he was still going to a teenager, while Karin would be middle-aged. 30 years after that, he would probably be a young adult, more or less, but Karin? Well, in 60 years time she could be dead.

The mere thought made him feel sick. He wasn't sure he could deal with her death. If they continued their relationship, not only would he not be able to offer the things she deserved, he would have to watch her grow old and die. Tōshirō wasn't sure that the saying 'Better loved and lost than to not have loved at all' was true. The thought of having to watch the woman he loved die terrified him. What if one day he came to visit the human world and she just wasn't there any more? He didn't think he'd be able to handle it. Tōshirō started feeling physically sick as he realised where this was heading. He didn't want the relationship to end, but on the other hand, wasn't it better to end it now rather than later?

Karin felt even worse than she did when she realised that Tōshirō wasn't saying anything. The expression on his face old her that he was having the same doubts. After a minute of building up her courage she finally spoke again. "Please say something Tōsh."

Tōshirō looked up at her, guiltily. He should've thought further into the future, he should've stopped it coming to this. They were both in pain because they didn't think it through properly to begin with. He felt like crying too. His throat felt dry and painful but he willed himself to speak anyway. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't think that far ahead. It didn't occur to me that these problems would come up. I'm...Trying to see a way this would work but..."  
Karin nodded. "I can't see one either."  
Tōshirō stared at Karin, knowing that this could quite possibly be the last time he saw her. "So this is..."  
Karin nodded. "Yeah."  
Tōshirō nodded as well and looked away, not really being able to look at Karin. "I...I should probably go."  
Karin nodded again, not being able to take her eyes of the floor. Tōshirō walked over to her and kissed her forehead lightly. "I really am sorry."  
Karin willed herself to look up at him and instantly regretted it. "So am I."

Karin couldn't take it and ended up walking away from him, staring at her bedroom floor again. Tōshirō took one last look at her before he walked over to her open window. He took a deep breath before speaking to her for the final time. "Goodbye Karin."  
She looked up at him again, watching him leave before bursting into tears again.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Tōshirō sighed heavily as he collapsed onto his bed. Rangiku had been worried about him for months, and had been trying to figure out what the problem was. Tōshirō never ended up telling her about his relationship with Karin, he was terrible with words and it had never come up, so Rangiku had no idea why he seemed so upset and dejected in the past 5 months or so. He just couldn't bring himself to tell her that he had a two year long relationship with Karin which he had ruined by not thinking properly. The entire thing could've been avoided. They discussed whether a relationship was a good idea or not, but they both ended up agreeing that they should give the relationship a try. Tōshirō could've kicked himself for being so stupid. He thought he had started to move past it, but when Rangiku suggested a trip to the human world to get his mind off whatever was bothering him, he ended up feeling absolutely terrible because pretty much everything related to the human world reminded him of her.

Tōshirō really didn't know what to do. He thought he could get past it on his own but he wasn't so sure any more. Any little thing seemed to make him feel horrible again. He felt like he should talk to someone, but he didn't know who. He felt like an idiot. He kept trying to move on, but when he wasn't busy or distracted he ended up thinking about her. Wondering how she was doing, whether she was having problems as well, wondering whether she had already moved on. The thought of Karin with someone else killed him. Then again just the thought of Karin made him feel incredibly awful. He decided that he had to try and talk to somebody, but he didn't know who.

For some reason he just couldn't bring himself to tell Rangiku about what had happened. He felt like he would just end up feeling more guilty than he already did. But who else was he supposed to talk to? He and Momo weren't particularly close any more, or at least, not close enough to talk about this. He thought for a while before he could only really think of one person.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Tōshirō took a deep breath and built up his courage for a few moments before knocking on the office door in front of him. A friendly "Come in!" could be heard from inside. He took another deep breath before opening the door and walking into the office.  
"Ah Captain Hitsugaya! Whatever are you doing here? Have you finally accepted my invitation of visiting me to get more sweets?"  
Tōshirō had a very awkward look on his face. "...Err no. I...um, was wondering if I could talk with you for a bit?"  
Ukitake noticed the pained expression on the boy's face. "Of course you can. Please sit down, I'll make some tea!"  
Tōshirō quickly held his hands up as a kind of 'stop' sign. "Oh no, please let me."  
Ukitake agreed somewhat reluctantly and sat back down in his chair while Tōshirō went and made two cups of tea. Tōshirō finished and walked over to Ukitake's desk, sitting down in the chair opposite him. Ukitake started to speak as Tōshirō handed him one of the cups.  
"So, what's bothering you?"

Tōshirō stayed silent, not really knowing what to say, or where to even start. Ukitake sat there patiently, waiting for the young captain to speak. Ukitake had noticed that something was wrong with him for a while now, but knew there was no point in trying to talk about it because Tōshirō would just automatically shut him out. Due to Tōshirō's quite defensive personality, it was much better to wait for Tōshirō to talk to someone of his own accord. But even then he knew it would be hard for Tōshirō to talk about personal issues. So he sat calmly and waited.  
Eventually Tōshirō managed to say something. "How...How do you get over a huge mistake that you've made?"  
"I suppose it would depend on the mistake. Is this about the problems Aizen caused?"  
Tōshirō shook his head. "No, for once."  
"I see..." Knowing it would be hard to get Tōshirō to open up, Ukitake decided to go for small, simple questions to try and figure out what kind of mistake he had made. "Where was this 'mistake' made then?"

Tōshirō sighed, trying to let his guard down a bit. "The human world."  
"Oh? Did it involve hollows then? Or humans? Or both? Did someone get injured?"  
"No it didn't involve hollows or injuries to humans. Not physical injuries anyway."  
Tōshirō spoke the last part of the sentence quietly so it was hard for Ukitake to hear, but it started to give him an idea. "I see. So was it more than one human emotionally hurt, or just the one?"  
Tōshirō unconsciously started avoiding Ukitake's eyes as he realised he was getting near to figuring out what had happened. "Just one."  
"Uh huh. Would this one human happen to be a girl by any chance?"

Tōshirō looked up at Ukitake in surprise, causing the older captain to smile.  
"So it was a girl."  
"How did you?"  
"Hitsugaya, I noticed that you happened to be visiting the human world more often. Whenever the Head Captain asked for a captain to investigate the human world you always volunteered. I assumed that there was something there that kept on bringing you back, but I didn't realise what. So a girl huh? What happened with her?"

Tōshirō took a deep breath. "Well...I first met her years ago, six actually. She ended up getting attacked by a hollow so I helped her out. Before I knew it she was asking me all of these different questions about shinigami. It turned out that she knew one, but they wouldn't tell her anything. But because she knew absolutely nothing it was putting her in danger. So I told her. Only the stuff she needed to know, but it meant we were talking for a while. And well...I liked her. She was a kid but she was intelligent and interesting. After that I bumped into her a couple times. After four years of bumping into each other and spending time with each other we just kinda..."  
Ukitake smiled. "Got together?"  
Tōshirō looked uncomfortable. "I guess? I don't know how else to put it."  
"So after this happened, what two years ago, what happened then?"  
"Well...We ended up staying together. Until a couple of months ago."

Ukitake's smile faded slightly as he realised what happened. "Ah. The two of you split up."  
"...Yeah. Neither of us wanted to but..."  
"Then why did you?"  
"Huh?"  
"If neither of you wanted to split up, why did you?"  
Tōshirō fidgeted slightly. "We decided it was for the best."  
"Why was that?"

Tōshirō shrugged slightly. "A number of reasons really. She was human, so she grows up quicker. She's already looking into different jobs and stuff. She has friends that are living with their partners already. She's practically an adult already. I'm...not. Besides, even if the age wasn't an issue, the fact that we live in two different worlds causes several problems."  
Ukitake nodded. "I can see why that would be difficult, but there are ways round it."  
"What do you mean?"

"There are other shinigami that have made a relationship work. The Kurosaki family come to mind. I knew Isshin Kurosaki. He was a good shinigami, but he ended up falling in love with a human. He loved her so much that he 'gave up' being a shinigami to be with her. They got married and they had a family. But he never really gave up the shinigami powers, they were just made dormant. He hasn't aged very much since I saw him in Soul Society. He's not ageing like a human, I can only assume he isn't human. If I understand the situation correctly, I can only assume that he is masquerading as a human until his wife dies."

Tōshirō spoke somewhat grimly. "His wife already died. Killed by a hollow."  
Ukitake paused for a moment before speaking. "I see. I would say that he's waiting for the children to die too before he becomes a shinigami again, but obviously that's now a grey area with Ichigo and seeing as all of the children are half shinigami, we don't know what the younger ones will do yet."  
Tōshirō stared at Ukitake in confusion. "All of them are half shinigami? All three of them?"  
"Yes. Which is why all of the events surrounding Ichigo happened."  
"That explains a lot."  
"Indeed. But it means that we don't know what will happen to the other two."  
"But...Captain, I've met them both. One of them doesn't really have the reiatsu for it, and the other one isn't interested in being a shinigami."

A sad look settled on Ukitake's face. "While that may be the case, they may not get a choice."  
Tōshirō could feel himself getting edgy. He wanted Karin to have the chance to do what she wanted. "What makes you say that?"  
"The higher the reiatsu, the higher the chance of dying young. Unfortunately that's the way it's always been." Tōshirō stayed silent, suddenly feeling nervous. "You say you've met them, are you aware of how often they are attacked by hollows?"  
"Well, the one without reiatsu rarely gets attacked, but the other one does, a lot actually. Or at least a lot for a human. And because they're sisters they're often together meaning that they're both likely to get attacked."

Tōshirō's insides started to twist. He didn't realise just how much danger the two of them were in, especially Karin. They couldn't be protected every single second of the day, no matter how hard you tried. "You really think they could get attacked and killed?"  
"It's likely. And being around their brother all the time is making it worse."  
"Ichigo's not living with them any more. He's gone off to university. I think he's in his last year or something, he's been gone a while."  
Ukitake nodded. "Well that helps, but the situation wasn't brilliant to begin with."  
"I see."

It was a while before Tōshirō spoke again. "Do you think I made it worse? Spending time with them?"  
"I wouldn't have thought so, you're much more in control of your reiatsu than Ichigo is."  
"It still wouldn't have helped though."  
"Well admittedly no, probably not. But it wouldn't have the made it much worse."  
Tōshirō sighed heavily and stared at the floor before speaking very quietly. "This whole thing was a mistake."  
Ukitake gave him a kind, but sad smile. "I take the girl you ended up in a relationship with was one of the Kurosaki girls then. The one with more reiatsu?"  
Tōshirō nodded. "Yeah. I ended up in a relationship with her that never would've ended well while managing to put her life in danger more than it already was. I'm so stupid."

Ukitake could see why he was kicking himself so hard over this. He also understood why he seemed so depressed recently. "You're not stupid Tōshirō. You fell for her. Believe me, it's always hard to think things through properly when it's concerned with the woman you love."  
"But I should've stopped it before it began!"  
Ukitake shook his head. "If I'm honest Tōshirō I don't think you should have stopped it at all."  
Tōshirō looked up at him. "What?"  
"She was good for you. Before the two of you split up you seemed a lot happier than you were before, you weren't as irritable, you seemed less stressed, in fact generally you seemed a lot healthier."  
"That doesn't matter. I was putting her in more danger than she needed to be in. Besides she was the one who ended it, not me."

"Of course it matters. You're always so busy thinking about other people's safety and happiness that you forget about your own. It's ok to be selfish once in a while. Besides, if you were with her all the time, wouldn't she be safer? She'd have a shinigami to help her with any hollows that attacked her. And you say she ended it, but did she? She may have told you that she has doubts, but there are problems in every single relationship. And when you come across problems you work together to build a bridge to get over it. Agreeing that you have a problem is a first step. After that, it's up to the couple. Either they work past it and become stronger, or they end up running away from each other, thinking it's for the best. And yes, sometimes it is for the best, but I don't think this is one of those times. If it was, you would be able to get over her a little more easily, because you would see the relationship as completely impossible. But you don't do you? There's still a part of you, hoping that it will work out."

Tōshirō was a little surprised by Ukitake's speech. After thinking for a while he spoke up. "Ok yes, I'm still hoping that a relationship will work. But that doesn't mean it will. I have a different view point than her. She might think it's impossible. She might have already gotten over it. Maybe this is one of those times where breaking is for the best."

Ukitake nodded. "I understand your doubts. But I believe you should at least think about it. Visit the human world again. If you honestly think that there's no way a relationship would work then try moving on by attacking the problem directly. Stop tiptoeing over issues and just try to move past it. It's like trying to get over a fear, sometimes it's best to just go for it head-on. If you think there's a possibility that a relationship would work, then again, go to the human world, and find this girl. Fix the problems."

Tōshirō stayed still for a while, thinking about what Ukitake had said. He then nodded and stood up. "Ok. I'll think about it." He bowed to Ukitake before speaking again. "Thank you."  
"Not a problem Hitsugaya. I'm always here if you wish to talk."  
Tōshirō nodded. "Oh, also, if you wouldn't mind, could you not talk to anyone about this?"  
"Of course. They're personal matters, I won't mention them to anyone."  
"Thank you."  
Ukitake nodded and gave a small wave as Tōshirō left his office.

XxXxXxXxXxX

No matter how much Tōshirō thought about it, it didn't matter how much he wanted a relationship with Karin or not, because it all depended on her. And she was the one who originally had doubts. Did she definitely want it to end, or did she want him to help her with the problems? At the time he couldn't see how he could help her, so he ended it. Truth be told he still couldn't see how he could help her, but after months and months of not talking to her or being in a relationship any more, he felt like he couldn't take it any more. He decided that he would talk to her, but he had no idea how he was going to do that.

He had to figure it out pretty quickly as well, as you had to have members of the Kido corps to open the gates to other realms for you, you had to inform them in advance if you wanted to go. He had told them when he wanted the gate open, he had asked a month in advance, assuming that would give him all the time he would need, but the day he was supposed to go to the human world was tomorrow and he had no idea how to go about it. He knew he couldn't back out, because if he did that he would never stop running away. He just wished he could figure out what to say, or at the very least manage to sleep.

Tōshirō eventually managed to drift off, but in the early hours of the morning. It wasn't long until he had wake up and face Karin. Or at least attempt to face her. He still had no idea what to say. He had a feeling that even if he prepared what to say beforehand words would escape him at the sight of her. So he figured he would stop trying to figure out what to say. It didn't stop him from worrying about it though.

Before long he woke up to the sound of his alarm. He got out of bed, feeling very very sick. He got dressed slowly, fumbling over even the simplest of tasks. He made himself breakfast but he couldn't bring himself to eat it. Feeling like it was now or never, he left his house and went over to the gate, to leave Soul Society and go into the human world.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Talking to Karin was not going as well as it was supposed to. He spotted her walking to school with Yuzu, but he couldn't bring himself to go up and talk to her. Not to mention he would probably make her late for school. He considered talking to her during her lunch break, but again, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He sat on a random roof, looking down at the street below before looking up at the stars. They were beautiful, but they just reminded him of Karin. He wondered if he should just give up trying to talk to her and go back to Soul Society. He looked back up at the stars and recognised some of the constellations that Karin had pointed out to him. The memory made him feel like crying. He was about to jump off the roof and make his way back to Soul Society when he heard a far too familiar voice.

"Tōshirō!"

'Shit.' Tōshirō automatically turned round to face the woman who shouted his name. Judging from her expression she didn't mean to shout out his name, but accidentally did so out of shock. Which she clearly regretted. Well didn't that make things easier? He gave a short nod to signal that he acknowledged that she was there. Almost immediately he wished he could take it back. He didn't do it with a smile or any sort of expression really, thinking about it now it must've seemed like quite a cold action. Which she did not react well to. It looked like she was torn between running, bursting into tears or ripping him to shreds with her bare hands. To be honest out of all of them he'd prefer the last one.

Eventually anger came out as the strongest emotion rather than sadness, which honestly he was thankful for. He felt like he could deal with her anger better than her crying.

"What the hell are you doing here!?"  
Tōshirō almost winced as he heard her spit the words out. He couldn't muster up the courage to tell her the truth. "Just because we split up doesn't mean I can stop going to human world. I still have a job, part of that is investigating the human world. I didn't mean to run into you, I honestly had no idea you were going to walk down this street."  
Karin tried to reel in her anger. If he could be civil, so could she. "I see. What sort of thing are you investigating?"  
Tōshirō shrugged. "The usual stuff. The amount of hollow attacks, that sort of thing."

Karin nodded before the two of them fell into a very awkward silence. Tōshirō cautiously studied Karin. She was acting calm, but her body language said different. The words 'the calm before the storm' flashed through his head. Karin dragged his attention back to reality by speaking in a pretty suspicious tone. "Are you really here to investigate the hollows? Because I haven't seen many recently."  
"You use products from Urahara don't you?"  
"Well yeah but still..."  
"What?"  
Karin sighed angrily. "It's just that you pick your bloody moments, that's what."  
'Here comes the storm' "What are you talking about?"

Karin glared at him. "I have enough problems as it is without you showing up! I have really important, basically life-determing exams coming up, I haven't been able to figure out what college to go yet, I can't find a job anywhere and then you decide to show up as well! I don't need it right now!"  
Tōshirō deliberately put on a confused expression. "I'm sorry you're under a lot of stress at the minute, but why do I cause a problem?"  
"Are you seriously asking that question!? Isn't it obvious!?"  
"No."  
Karin was balling up her fists, incredibly annoyed. "I swear to God Tōshirō, if you don't stop playing dumb right now-"  
"Look I think I know what you're talking about, but I don't want to be wrong about it."  
Karin narrowed her eyes. "What difference does it make?"  
"It makes all the difference! I can't get over you ok!? No matter how hard I try I just can't! And if you can't either then...Then maybe...We should...Well try again?"

Shock was written all over Karin's face. "Are you serious? I thought we said it wouldn't work! It's hard enough to get over you, and vice versa, and you're just making it worse!"  
"Look Karin, if neither of us wants to be apart from each other what's the point?"  
"Because a relationship won't work!"  
Toshiro couldn't help but see the slight panic in her eyes. The poor girl didn't know what to do. "But it could. Possibly. Maybe. I feel like we should at least talk about it."  
"What is there even to talk about? What options do we even have?"  
"Well..."  
Karin gave him a pointed look. "See! Can you even think of anything?"  
"You know there was one shinigami-human couple that worked. One that I'm aware of anyway."

Karin sighed as she leaned against a nearby lamppost, deciding to listen to Tōshirō.  
"There was a shinigami who fell in love with a human, and he figured that he couldn't live without her, so he turned his shinigami powers dormant and lived with her like a human. They had a family. They were happy...until she died. But even then it's a good family, they miss their mother but they're still happy. Look, I just...I don't want to live without you."  
The anger had disappeared from Karin's face. "Tosh, you do realise what you're implying right? I don't want you to do that."  
Tōshirō walked closer to her. "It wouldn't be a permanent thing. And I wouldn't even try until we were completely sure we would work. And hey Urahara's good at inventing stuff, maybe he could create a gigai that could age, work completely like a human body or something. My point is we have options." Tōshirō came even closer to her, gently placing his hands on her waist. "I don't want to lose you."

Karin bit her lip, trying her hardest not to cry. With all of the stress she was under lately, being completely physically and emotionally exhausted, and with the sudden shock and confusion that had hit her system when Tōshirō showed up, it was hard not to. "I...I dunno. I mean, I...I want to be with you, but, what if it doesn't work? What if we're just making it worse?"  
"Isn't that the same for all relationships? You never know what's round the corner, but there are ways round this problem we've got now."  
"It still requires making huge changes though."  
"I know, but those changes are a while away still, and they're not permanent."  
Karin looked up at him. "So, we don't have to think about them yet, as long as we know they're there?"

Tōshirō nodded. "Yeah. I know it's a little sudden to go from being apart for months to thinking about this stuff yet, all I'm asking is that you think about whether we could work."  
"You...You really wanna try again?"  
"Yes."  
"And you're sure about this?"  
"I'm sure."  
"Does this mean if we break up again I can completely blame you?"  
Tōshirō's face broke out in a grin. "Does that mean you're willing to give it another go?"  
Karin looked up at him before nodding. "...Yeah. But if it does go wrong I am totally blaming you."  
Tōshirō couldn't stop grinning. "Feel free."

Karin laughed and hugged him. "So what made you come talk to me?"  
"...Well I missed you a lot. And to be honest, I couldn't get over you. So I talked to someone about that and they told me that I should talk to you."  
"Really? Who?"  
"Another captain. He's practically famous for being nice. He used to give me tons of sweets when I was younger. Still tries to occasionally."  
Karin laughed. "Aww, how cute."  
Toshiro nodded. "Yeah."  
"Tosh?"  
"Hmm?"

Karin stared at the floor. "...I really missed you too.  
Toshiro wrapped his arms around her tightly. She looked up at him before snuggling into his neck. "Are you sure this can work?"  
"If there isn't a way at the minute, and I'm 98 percent sure this is, then I'll find one."  
She smiled before barely whispering. "Thank you...for coming back."  
Toshiro looked down at her. "It was hard not to."


	9. Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rate at which time passed in the human world never failed to surprise Toshiro. It just went so quick. Humans advanced so quickly, they grew so quickly. Toshiro never realised how quick until he ran into a certain 'girl' again.

Tōshirō had never understood the phrase 'life is short'. It seemed to go on forever. He had been stuck in the same routine for years now. When he started to get involved with the human world he started to understand where the phrase came from. Their lives seemed to pass so quickly. When he first met Ichigo and his friends they seemed so young. Physically older than him sure, but mentally they were quite young. Not unwise, they were inexperienced more than anything else. Only four years had passed since he first met them and yet they seemed to have grown so much. They were a lot more mature these days. It was strange to think that a group of people could change so much in only four years. It was a foreign concept to him.

Four years was not a long time, not to him anyway. Barely anything changed in Soul Society in just four years. Change was very slow in the spirit world. But the human world had already changed so much. Tōshirō could remember the first time a shinigami brought back a digital camera from the human world. Almost everyone was fascinated by it and the technology behind it. They were amazed that such a small device could capture an exact image almost instantly. Since then quite a few shinigami had acquired digital cameras, and generally speaking human technology and inventions were talked about a lot more actively than before.

That really didn't seem so long ago and yet the majority of human now had touch screen devices that could take good quality photos, play music, play games, use as a phone and go on the internet (whatever that was), and it could fit into your pocket. How quickly humans advanced and evolved never failed to surprise him. It was what, fifty or sixty years ago when humans had computers that could barely fit in one large room and now they fit in your pocket. Fifty-sixty years was less than half of his life time for god's sake. They just developed so quickly. Tōshirō honestly had no idea how they kept up.

It wasn't just their techniques, their equipment and devices that advanced so quickly. They themselves seemed to evolve so quickly these days. On average, humans were becoming taller, stronger, faster. World records seemed to be broken all of the time. Humans just kept going, advancing, changing, all of the time. It actually meant that the souls living in Rukongai were getting a lot more diverse. 100 years ago the vast majority were completely Japanese, these days all sorts of nationalities were showing up. Truth be told Tōshirō loved the fact that things were changing, he was starting to get bored, but it was still so weird to think about. They really did change quickly. Their lives seemed to pass quickly For humans life really was short.

Every time he travelled to the human world he was shocked by their growth. Although the source of the shock changed every time. The last one possibly being the most interesting. Rangiku and Orihime had ended up getting quite excited about seeing each other, and got pretty loud. Tōshirō didn't really want to ruin their fun, as they hadn't seen each other for over a year, so he decided to take a walk to see if he could find somewhere else to write his report.

Unconsciously he made his way to the railing he often ended up sitting on, more out of habit than anything else. He ended up bumping into a young woman. He didn't think anything of it until he looked at her properly. She was fairly tall, taller than him anyway. She was well proportioned as well, her legs long with a slightly curvy figure. She was wearing tight jeans and a tank top. Her long hair was tied back into a high ponytail. Her eyes were large, and a very dark blue that they were almost black. Tōshirō paused. Her face seemed familiar and it took him a moment to realise why. When he did he struggled to keep the shock off his face.

The woman in front of him was the same little girl he played football with four years ago. Except she wasn't a little girl any more. Far from it in fact. If he hadn't known for a fact that she was fourteen he would've thought that she was a fully grown woman. She certainly looked like it. He hadn't seen her in about three and a half years, and she had changed so much in that time. She had grown up very quickly. Time seemed to go so quickly in the human world. They both looked like children when they met, and in the three years or so he hadn't seen her, he hadn't changed at all. But she had practically grown into a woman. It seemed like she managed to skip the entire teenager stage.

Looking back at it now that probably when he realised how quickly time went in the human world.

It wasn't long after that meeting that Karin had died, or rather, was attacked. Tōshirō would've liked to have been very sad about it and thinking that it was unfortunate, but honestly he saw it coming. The girl was practically a beacon for hollows. He had saw it coming for a while now. But it wasn't that bad actually. She died about three minutes before Yuzu. The girls had been together when they were attacked. Ichigo practically spent half of his time in Soul Society or doing shinigami business and their father had revealed himself as a shinigami. The entire family was either dead or a shinigami. So they just all ended up in Soul Society, although Ichigo still visits the human world occasionally. Isshin worked as a spare shinigami, not really assigned to a squad, just helped people where help was needed, similar to Ichigo. While Yuzu wasn't a shinigami, nor training to be one (not yet anyway) she spent a lot of her time in the fourth squad either cooking, cleaning or helping. She enjoyed her time there and the squad seemed to enjoy having her.

And Karin? Well Tōshirō was currently watching her train, sparring with Rangiku. She hadn't gotten much older between their last meeting in the human world and her death. And she had barely aged a day since her death, not having changed at all. Tōshirō however had gotten a bit taller. Tōshirō was secretly glad that she had died while she was young. He knew it was bad to think this way, but it meant that she wasn't growing anywhere near as quickly as she was. It meant Tōshirō could catch up. He had already started, he was only a few inches shorter than her now. They could practically grow together. But it also meant that he could spend more time with her, something he enjoyed a lot.

He watched as Karin beat Rangiku (although he knew that Rangiku was going very easy on her) and she winked at him. Before he could stop himself he smirked. He felt like kicking himself when he saw that Rangiku had noticed his response. He knew he was going to get teased a lot for this later. He looked over to Karin again, who was now stretching to make sure she wouldn't have any muscle problems. He sighed. Maybe he enjoyed spending time with her a little too much.


	10. Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karin found herself lying more and more these days. To her family, friends, even Toshiro. She felt like it was for a good cause though.

Karin found herself lying a lot these days. She would lie to her family, about where she was going, what she was doing, or where she had been and done. She also found herself lying to Tōshirō, telling him that she had more spare time that she actually had, or telling her that she didn't have to be back home until late where in reality she was supposed to be home much earlier.

It wasn't long until Yuzu caught onto what was going on. She figured out that Karin was lying pretty quickly, and became very worried. She wanted to confront her about it. She was frightened that she was following the same path as her brother, and would end up disappearing for weeks at a time. So she tried to figure out why Karin was lying. After a couple of weeks she managed to. She ended up deciding against talking to Karin about it, after she figured out why she was lying. She was trying to keep something secret, and honestly, Yuzu understood why she was.

Karin knew that if her brother found out he would practically stalk the two of them until he was a hundred percent sure that she was safe. She knew if her dad found out he wouldn't shut up about it. Ever. It was the same reason Tōshirō hadn't let Rangiku find out yet. She wouldn't stop talking about it either if she knew. The two of them kept lying, so they could spend more time with each other, alone. So their relationship could remain theirs, even if it was only for a few more months. Neither of them had any doubts that Rangiku and the Kurosaki family would find out eventually. In fact Karin had an inkling that Yuzu already knew something. But they wanted to enjoy the peace for as long as they could before people found out.

Lying wasn't always a bad thing. Sure if you build a relationship on lies it was likely to fail. But Karin and Tōshirō were lying to protect themselves and their relationship for a while. Both of them agreed that their relationship would probably get a bit bumpy when people found out, just because of the noise it would cause. They were lying to give themselves some privacy. They knew that the two of them would be found out eventually, but for now, they were sitting on the roof, talking, laughing and enjoying each others company, protected by their bubble of lies.


	11. Bandage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karin struggled to look at the scene in front of her. Being a nurse in a local clinic and tending to severe shinigami injuries were two very different things. Especially when it's a shinigami you care about.

Karin watched with horror as Tōshirō, among a fair few other shinigami, were brought into the Urahara Shoten, all severely injured. They had been fighting against arrancars, and only just won. Karin didn't now a lot about arrancars, but form what she gathered they were an evolved, much more powerful, form of hollows. She stood in the doorway of the room the injured had been put in, shocked that they had been put in such a state. She was starting to understand why her brother had tried to keep shinigami and hollows a secret from her for so long.

Tōshirō had very deep gashes in his shoulder, chest and stomach. His entire torso was bloody. Rukia had an entire hole in her stomach, Karin could see the floor underneath her. Another shinigami she didn't recognise had two of their limbs ripped off. Or at least it looked like it. They certainly hadn't been cut cleanly off. Karin shuddered and scrunched up her eyes, unable to look at any more injuries. By the time she opened her eyes again Urahara, Yoruichi, Tessai and Orihime were treating and healing them. Except there were four people treating the injured, while there were five injured. Tōshirō wasn't being tended to yet, him being left for last as he was in the best condition, the only one actually managing to stay conscious. Orihime was working on Rukia, who was in the most critical condition. Karin wasn't even sure she was alive any more.

Karin took a deep breath, grabbed a box of medical equipment and walked over to Tōshirō. His eyes widened slightly when he saw her. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be involved."  
"Shut up, you need to use your energy to stay awake."  
Tōshirō's voice was quiet and strained. "I don't have a concussion."  
"I'd rather be sure. Your blood is everywhere, including your head, now shut up."

Tōshirō stayed silent and watched Karin treat him. She leaned over him, trying to observe his wounds but struggled because of all the blood. Instead, she got a good idea of where the wound are, grabbed a bowl of clean water and a flannel and knelt down beside him. She started to dab at his wounds, carefully cleaning them, trying to make it as painless as possible. She couldn't stop herself from noticing every time he winced.

She sighed. "I need you to sit up so I can do the rest properly." Karin spoke again very quickly when she saw Tōshirō started to move. "But! You need to let me help you get up. Tōshirō, it's gonna hurt like a bitch as it is, you don't need to make it worse."

Tōshirō paused for a moment before agreeing. He hated being injured and feeling weak, but there was no sense in making it worse. He let her help him up slowly. Afterwards she knelt on the floor again, one knee to the side of him, one knee between his legs so she was at an angle so it was easier to wrap the one shoulder with his chest and stomach. She leaned over and pulled the box of medical equipment closer to her.

She grabbed the flannel again and cleaned up his shoulder, which she previously couldn't reach properly. Karin grimaced when she was done, noticing just how pink the originally clean water was. He had lost a lot of blood. He'd have to have an IV put in later. She grabbed a roll of bandages and started to wrap his wounds. Delicately but tightly, starting with his shoulder. She temporarily pinned the bandages together, so that they would stay in the right place while she moved on to the rest of his torso.

Karin smiled slightly as she saw that his bleeding was starting to stop. She continued to wrap his wounds, going all the way round his chest and stomach. By the end she had practically covered his entire midsection. She held the end of the bandage tightly against his chest while she searched for glue designed to keep bandages stuck together. Finding none, she sighed and grabbed a couple more pins instead and put them in her mouth, needing two hands for the next job. She made sure the bandage was pulled tight in one hand, and grabbed a pin with the other and used both hands to pin the bandage securely to itself. She pulled another one out of her mouth, knowing she would need a few to make sure it was secure.

While she was working she caught Toshiro's eyes, which had been watching her the entire time, causing her breath to hitch slightly, not expecting it. The two ended up staring at each other while Karin put on the last pin. She finally broke eye contact to make sure the bandages were on ok before looking at his face again. "You...Er, didn't bump your head did you? It's just blood from your chest in your hair?"  
"Yeah, I didn't bump my head at all."  
"Really? You seem to be struggling to focus your eyes. You keep staring at me."  
"Oh, I wasn't staring at you because I wasn't focused, I didn't zone out, I just, I was staring at you because..."

Karin looked over to him and tried to ignore the burning feeling on her cheeks. She gently put her hands on either side of his face and tilted his head up slightly, looking into his eyes. "Well they don't seem cloudy and your following me pretty well, so it looks like you're ok, just exhausted. You should get some sleep."  
Karin started to get up when Tōshirō grabbed her wrist, surprising her. "What?"  
"Thank you, for-"  
"Don't worry about it."  
"It's not like you had to-"

Karin knelt back down again, stopping him, and looked straight into his eyes. "Yes I did. I did have to." Tōshirō didn't bother to hide his surprise at her words, honestly being far too exhausted to even think about controlling his facial expressions. "Get better soon, ok?" Karin got up and dusted her knees off a bit. "Oh, and please get some sleep. The quicker you recover the less I worry." Tōshirō stared at her, watching her leave the room, thinking about what she had just said.

Karin came back in a few minutes with a blanket in her hands and an irritated look on her face. "Why are you still sitting up? You should be trying to sleep. You can move on your own now, seeing that I've bandaged you up."  
"Oh...Sorry."

Karin sighed as she watched him lean back onto the floor, before unfolding the blanket in her hands."You're not really with it, are you? Anyway, I know you say that's better for you to be cold, but not when you're injured. Bodies have an optimum core temperature where they work best so you need to be warm. You need to reproduce a lot of blood."

She bent down and draped the blanket over him before kneeling down. She put her hand on his forehead. "Good, you don't feel warm. With the size of your wounds I'm worried that you'll pick up an infection."  
"I never feel warm."  
Karin looked at him, a sad expression on her face. "You're warmer than you think you are."  
Toshiro turned his head towards her, knowing she wasn't talking about temperature any more. "Why did you heal me? You work in a local clinic, I'm sure you're not used to these kinds of injuries. You could've just left the others to do it."  
Karin shook her head. "No I couldn't." She bent down and kissed him lightly on his forehead. "I'll always try to heal you."


	12. Intoxication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toshiro absolutely hated Rangiku's parties. They were loud, messy and had a tendency to involve a lot of drunk shinigami. Rangiku was determined to show him that her parties aren't all that bad.

Tōshirō rubbed his temples as he felt a headache coming on. Rangiku had taken the liberty of hosting a party. In his office. Again. Tōshirō sighed. Parties were loud and always a pain to clear up, not to mention it interfered with his work. It had only started half an hour ago and he was already sick of it. Half of the people invited hadn't even shown up yet. He wondered how many people were actually going to come. The amount of 'guests' always seemed ridiculously high. At the moment the majority of the attendees were members of his squad, but he knew that officers from most of the squads would show up soon enough. Especially ranked officers he noticed. Rangiku had a knack for convincing others to come along. Tōshirō shook his head lightly. He wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow was a tough day for every squad, if the amount of alcohol that had already been consumed was anything to go on.

Soon enough his office started to well and truly fill up with people, from all squads. Did Rangiku even know half of these people? Tōshirō doubted it.  
"Captain! Try and enjoy yourself!"  
"Are you kidding?"  
"Oh c'mon just try. Here."

Tōshirō glared at the drink she was trying to shove at him. "Matsumoto, I'm not drinking alcohol."  
"Huh? Why not? It's not like you're a kid any more."  
"Maybe not, but someone is gonna have to work tomorrow."  
Rangiku nodded. "Fine, drink this instead."  
Tōshirō raised an eyebrow.  
"It's non-alcoholic."  
Tōshirō rolled his eyes before taking it, knowing it was only way to stop her bothering him.

Hisagi made his way over to Rangiku when Tōshirō walked away. "Hey Rangiku, did you really get non-alcoholic drinks?"  
Rangiku giggled. "Nope! But he needs to learn how to relax!"  
Hisagi nodded slowly. "Thought as much. Buying non-alcoholic drinks didn't sound like you."

An hour had passed and Tōshirō had gotten through 4 bottles. He had started to suspect that the drink Rangiku had given him was alcoholic. The fact that it was alcoholic didn't worry him too much though. The fact that it didn't worry him that the drink was alcoholic did worry him though. He had to work tomorrow. Someone had to clean this stuff up tomorrow morning. But he didn't he care. He couldn't be that drunk could he? He didn't really feel it, but he hadn't exactly built up much of a tolerance to alcohol, so logically he had to be drunk. Didn't he? Tōshirō groaned in frustration, not being able to keep up with his own thoughts.

Deciding that it would be best to just try and keep his mind of his thoughts, Tōshirō figured that he would start clearing up a bit, there were glasses and cups everywhere, that were bound to get broken soon if they were left. Tōshirō stood up and walked over to the 'designated recycling area' as Rangiku had put it and placed his glass in one of the containers. Well he couldn't fault her for trying to be environmentally conscious, even if it didn't really matter in Soul Society. It was actually kinda sweet that she saw that recycling is a big deal in the human world and decided to try and get the same thing going around here.

"Wow I didn't think you would be drinking."  
Tōshirō turned around to look at the young woman behind him. "I didn't really get a choice."  
Karin smiled sympathetically. "Rangiku?"  
"Of course."  
Karin grinned. "Still, maybe it's not a bad thing. You always seem so stressed. It's good to let yourself relax occasionally."  
"Well yes, but I don't need alcohol to do that."  
"Good! Being dependant on alcohol to have a good time would kinda suck."  
Tōshirō nodded.

The two stayed silent for a moment, a little awkwardly, before Karin spoke again. "So, how many have you had?"  
"A few, why?"  
Karin shrugged. "You want another one?"  
Tōshirō looked over to Karin. He had came to the conclusion that he probably shouldn't drink any more about ten minutes ago, but he found it stupidly hard to refuse her. Especially when she was smiling at him in the way that she was. Surely one more couldn't hurt? The two of then grabbed a drink before Karin grabbed his hand and dragged him outside. Tōshirō gave her a questioning look, making her get a little flustered. "It was packed in there. Too hot and loud."

Tōshirō nodded slowly. It had taken him by surprise, dragging him out like that. He could remember when Karin had been very shy and nervous around him, it had lasted for a fair few weeks. And now she was dragging him around like she had known him for years. She had of course, but with them both having important responsibilities, they rarely got a chance to talk. If his head was working correctly (which admittedly he wasn't sure it was, with the alcohol and all) then he estimated the two of them had only really gotten together and talked properly a grand total of ten or eleven times in the past three years they had known each other. But she didn't seem to mind getting close to him.

"Where are we anyway?"  
Tōshirō's head snapped up. "Huh?"  
Karin's eyes glanced around the area she dragged him to. "I don't recognise this place."  
"Oh." Tōshirō realised what she was talking about. "This the area behind my office, it links up to my house."  
"...But...I thought I took you out the front?"  
Tōshirō raised his eyebrow. "How much have you had to drink?"  
Karin's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't know, I can't really remember. Maybe I should go home."  
Concern flashed across Tōshirō's face. "I think you should, you don't want to get yourself in trouble."

Karin nodded and lifted herself up from the wall she had been leaning against. She started moving towards his office again, presumably to go through it to get to the front before Tōshirō stopped her. "What?"  
"I'm not letting you go home in this state on your own."  
Karin rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine."  
Tōshirō watched as Karin stumbled over what appeared to air. "I'm sure. Where do you live?"  
"In the second squad, being the Vice-Captain and all."

Tōshirō could've slapped himself. Looked like Karin wasn't the only one who was intoxicated. "You can't go all that way now, with the state you're in, it's ages away."  
"It's not ages away, we can shunpo."  
Tōshirō shook his head. "Something tells me if we start shunpoing you're gonna start throwing up."  
"I'm not a lightweight!"

Tōshirō had to resist rolling his eyes. "When was the last time you ate?"  
"I dunno, like seven or eight?"  
"Which is five or six hours ago. And you can't remember how much you've drunk. This isn't about you being a lightweight, you've just drunk too much. Face it, shunpoing to your house isn't going to be a good idea."  
Karin huffed before replying. "Well then what do you suggest?"

Tōshirō thought for a while before coming to what looked like the only solution. "I suppose you could sleep over at my house tonight."  
Karin glared at him. "What?"  
Tōshirō couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes this time. "Relax. I actually mean sleep. Do you really think I would take advantage of you like that?"  
"Oh. Well...no, but alcohol is playing hell with my intelligence."  
Tōshirō nodded. "Cmon."

XxXxXxXxXxX

Karin groaned loudly as the light hitting her face wouldn't go away. She forced her eyes open to see whether she had left the curtains open last night. She hadn't, they were just light coloured curtains. She groaned again as she buried her head under the duvet. Her head was killing her. She opened her eyes again, not being able to fall back asleep with such a headache. Suddenly she shot up, making her wince in pain straight after. This wasn't her bed, or her room, or even her house. What the hell had happened last night?

Karin couldn't help but get more frightened the longer she was awake. She had decided to walk through the house, but none of it was familiar. She couldn't remember anything from last night. She had no idea where she was, why she was there and how she got there. It worried her to say the least. Karin walked to the last room in the house, the kitchen. Again nothing seemed familiar. Karin had no idea what she was supposed to do. There was no one in the house. She wasn't really in a state to go exploring to find her way back home. She started to make her way back out of the kitchen until she caught sight of her name. Karin turned to face the fridge which had an envelope with her name written in big letters. She opened it quickly and tried her hardest to read the letter, regardless of her headache.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Tōshirō jumped slightly as he heard the door to the right of him open. Usually it was the other that people came through. He relaxed when he saw Karin walk through, rather groggily. Tōshirō spoke quietly, knowing that she probably didn't feel well. "Hey."

Karin waved at him, almost childishly. "Why was I at your place? In your bed?"  
"Didn't I say in the letter?"  
"No."  
"Oh...I meant to."  
Karin mustered the best glare she could under the circumstances. "Well?"  
"You got pretty drunk last night, to the point where you were struggling to walk. Because your house is miles away, I let you stay at my house."

"Ok...But that doesn't explain I was in your bed."  
"I put you in my bed and I slept on the sofa downstairs."  
Karin smiled slightly. "You should've put me on the sofa."  
Toshiro shook his head. "You probably would've fallen off if I put you on the sofa, it's not exactly huge."  
"Still..."  
Tōshirō shrugged and continued to clean up the mess in his office.

"Thank you, for letting me stay and making sure I was ok."  
Tōshirō offered her a small smile. "Don't worry about it."  
A few moments of silence passed before Karin spoke again. "I didn't...do anything stupid last night did I?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"You know, I didn't do anything that I wouldn't have done if I was sober."  
"Well you did drag me outside of my office out the back."

Karin's eyes widened slightly. "Oh crap I didn't do anything else to you after that did I?"  
"No that was when I decided to take you to my house. Why, what would you have done?"  
Karin shook her head furiously. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."  
"If you keep doing that you'll make your head worse."  
Karin stopped and put one of her hands up to her temples. "Jeez you weren't kidding."  
"Is this the first time you got drunk?"  
"Well, I've been drunk before, but never to the point where I can't remember everything from the night before."  
Tōshirō nodded. "I see."

The two stayed in silence for a couple of minutes, a little awkwardly, before Tōshirō's voice filled the quiet room. "Seriously, what else would you have done after you dragged me out there?"  
Karin glared at him as her face turned bright red. "Nothing! It doesn't concern you anyway."  
Tōshirō smiled at her flawed reasoning. "How does it not concern me? It directly involves me. You dragged me out there, in an area where we were alone and you were worried that you had done something else to me. What could you have done? Should I avoid you from now on whenever you're drunk?"

Karin continued to glare at him for as long as she could before breaking eye contact, looking down at the floor, embarrassed. She didn't know what was worse, the fact that he had figured out that she was interested in him or the fact that he was now teasing her with it. Tōshirō noticed how embarrassed she had gotten and started feeling bad. He sighed and walked over to her, gently holding her upper arms, making her look up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset." He carefully took her hair that was covering her face and tucked it behind her ear, making her go even redder. "I'm just...well happy."  
"Huh?"  
"I like you."

Karin eyebrows rose in surprise. "You do?"  
Tōshirō smiled slightly. "Yeah. And I'm assuming, well hoping that you like me too?"  
Karin grumbled under her breath. "Obviously."  
"Sorry for teasing you."  
Karin glared at him. "You should be. That was mean."  
"Sorry." He spoke again, quietly, barely above a whisper. "It's just that you look so cute when you turn red like that."

Karin went red again and shoved him away. Tōshirō smirked as he saw the playfulness in her eyes, which ended up making her grin. "So you like me too huh?"  
Tōshirō nodded. "Yeah, for a while now. I thought you had noticed."  
Karin shook her head. "Nope. So er...What does this mean?"  
Tōshirō looked at her. "What do you want it to mean? Do you want to be, well together, for lack of a better word?"  
"Well, yeah."  
"Good."  
Karin smiled to herself, which Tōshirō couldn't help but notice.  
"Karin you should go rest. And make sure you drink a lot of water, alcohol dehydrates you."  
Karin nodded, smiling again when Tōshirō kissed her forehead."

Outside of the office, Rangiku grinned almost manically at the result of her little get-together. And to think that her Captain used to hate parties and alcohol.


	13. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's amazing how when we lose a person we can often feel lost ourselves. [CHARACTER DEATH]

Tōshirō couldn't believe it. He could not believe what he had just been told. He simply could not wrap his head round it. It couldn't be true. It didn't make any sense.  
"What do you mean, we lost her?"  
"Captain Hitsugaya, she died on the battlefield.  
"But...She couldn't have. She promised that she would keep herself safe."

Rangiku winced slightly. The messenger had caught the two of them in one of those rare times where Rangiku was actually in the office, but Rangiku would give just about anything to be out of it. The news about Karin, Tōshirō's expression, the fact that he couldn't cope with the information, she could almost feel her heart breaking. The atmosphere alone made her feel like crying. God knows how her Captain felt.

"I'm sorry Captain Hitsugaya."  
Tōshirō stayed deadly silent. After a few minutes Rangiku spoke up instead. "Whose organising the funeral? Gotei 13, or the family?"  
The messenger looked very uncomfortable. "We haven't found the body yet."  
"Then maybe she's not dead! She could just be missing!"

Rangiku's insides twisted uncomfortably when she saw Tōshirō's eyes light up when he said that. He wasn't accepting her death. It wasn't going through to him.  
"I'm sorry Captain Hitsugaya. Several shinigami saw her die. Afterwards she was...well, flung. Which is why we haven't found her body yet."  
"How can you be so sure?"  
Rangiku got up from her seat and gently placed her hand on Tōshirō's shoulder. "Captain, I'm sorry, but she's gone. We've lost her, you have to accept that."

Tōshirō turned around and the look on his face caused Rangiku to shake slightly. This really was breaking her heart. But she refused to cry. She had to stay strong for her Captain.  
She gently wrapped her arms around Tōshirō, and for the first time ever, he reciprocated the embrace. He held onto her, clinging onto her.  
"She promised me that she would stay safe."  
"I know Captain, I'm sorry."  
"She said she wouldn't die."  
Rangiku stayed silent and waited for Tōshirō to speak again. "She...I mean...How am I supposed to...What am I supposed to..."

Rangiku just hugged him tighter as he finally broke down and cried.


	14. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The words coming out his grandmother's mouth sounded like an old wives tale. And yet the longer he thought about it, the more it made sense.

Tōshirō poured two cups of tea, setting one of them down in front of his grandmother and the other one opposite her, before moving to sit down at the table. His grandmother gave him a weak smile and started talking. "It is nice to see you visit Tōshirō, you don't come to see me as often as you did."  
"Sorry Granny, things have been busy to say the least."  
The elderly woman nodded wisely. "I've heard. Although some of the rumours seem exaggerated."  
Tōshirō smiled lightly. "Then they're probably not. Weird things have happened in the past couple of years."

"Do you mean to tell me that Soul Society really is changing?"  
Tōshirō nodded. "Yeah. It's slow, but it's getting there."  
"For the better?"  
Tōshirō nodded again. "Definitely. It's hard to explain. People thought for themselves before, but it like a lot of people are starting to think that things could be better. Things seem a bit more humane. Who knew all we needed was a group of teenage humans?"  
"So the rumours really are true? A group of young humans invaded to save a shinigami who was sentenced to death?"  
"Yes. They succeeded too. I'm glad they did. There are people complaining that these changes aren't in keeping with tradition, but, some of the traditions of Soul Society are less than pleasant."

Tōshirō's grandmother nodded. "Never thought I would see such a thing happen in my lifetime."  
"You're not the only one."  
The woman in front of him raised an eyebrow. "The way you talk has changed."  
"Oh. Um, I guess that happens when you spend so much time in the living world."  
"Oh my, why have you been in the living world for so long?"  
Tōshirō shrugged. "Missions. It's just that those missions can often end up being a little more complicated."  
"Oh?"  
"Humans are complex to say the least. They're usually the ones that make the missions complicated."

His grandmother's expression urged Tōshirō to continue. "They have a tendency to know stuff they shouldn't, and see stuff they shouldn't be able to, not the mention there's a particular human I keep encountering who keeps trying to do things she shouldn't."  
"If you ask me young one, women who are stubborn tend to be the best ones."  
"I...I see your point but, she keeps putting herself in danger. It...Makes me worry."  
The elderly woman gave Tōshirō a pointed look. "Yes I know the feeling. I doubt you know this, but Momo had been begging me for months on end to let her become a shinigami before I gave in and allowed her to do so. It's hard to let people do what they want if it's risky, but you cannot cage up the people you care about."

"She begged you for months?"  
"Yes."  
"When I asked you first time you let me."  
"It was a little easier as you weren't the first to ask, but it was impossible to ignore the determinism in your eyes. I had to let you fly. And fly you did. You became the youngest Captain. Risk suits some people."

Tōshirō nodded thinking about what she had said while drinking his tea. She had a point. Risk did suit some people. Take Ichigo Kurosaki for example. The sheer risk of himself and his friends dying meant he became one of the most powerful shinigami Soul Society had become associated with. He wondered if it applied to all members of the Kurosaki family.

"So, what is this young woman like?"  
"Well, different. She's stubborn, struggles to take no for an answer and is generally a pain in the a-neck." Tōshirō stumbled a little on the last word, not particularly feeling like getting reprimanded for language he knew his grandmother didn't approve of.  
"But?"  
Tōshirō looked over to his grandmother and sighed. "But, she's also wonderful and caring, intelligent and strangely engaging."

His grandmother tilted her head ever so slightly. "Strangely engaging?"  
"Yeah. Well I mean we've managed to have conversations that go on longer than an hour, we never seem to run out of things to say. I really don't know how."  
"My, that is quite an impressive feat, especially with how you are when it comes to talking." Tōshirō nodded before the older woman continued. "So, is she pretty?"  
"I-What?"  
"Is she pretty?"  
"I...Well yeah but..."

His grandmother gave him a knowing smile. "Sounds like you found the other side of your red string."  
Tōshirō gave her a sceptical look. "As in the red string of fate? Granny that's a myth."  
His grandmother shook her head with a smile on her face. "If you've been alive for as long as I have, you would believe it too." Tōshirō still had a dubious look on his face. "Tōshirō, do you ever feel drawn to her?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"When you're in the living world, do you ever feel the need to go see her, to talk to her? I know she makes you worry, but at the same time do you feel glad to see her again?"

Tōshirō sat there, drinking the last of his tea in silence, thinking.  
"Oh!"  
Tōshirō looked to his grandmother and then followed the direction of her eyes. "It's a hell butterfly."  
He stood up from his chair and caught the butterfly, it fluttering a little before settling down and playing the message. He sighed as the hell butterfly flew off, having completed it's job. "Granny I have to go, I have a mission."  
"Where?"  
"...The living world."  
His grandmother nodded. "Do yourself a favour Tōshirō, think about what I said, particularly when you're in the living world."  
Tōshirō nodded and bid goodbye, needing to leave as fast as possible.

XxXxXxXxXxX

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Tōshirō made his way over to Karin as quickly as possible, unsheathing his Zanpaktō as he did. He cleanly cut off the arms of the hollow that were holding Karin tightly before tearing through the hollow's head. Karin screamed as she started to fall to the floor, the hollow had been holding her up quite a high. Tōshirō rolled his eyes before shunpoing over to her and catching her. "Why bother screaming when you know I'm going to catch you?"  
"Hey, falling like 20/30 feet is scary! Besides I don't know that you're going to catch me!"  
"What are you talking about?"  
"You're not always here!"

It was then when Tōshirō noticed the bruises on Karin's legs, which had clearly been caused by a hollow. Today wasn't the first attack she suffered this week. Tōshirō felt a pang of guilt, watching Karin wince as he put her gently on her feet. "What happened?"  
Karin followed Tōshirō's gaze and realised he was talking about the attack a couple days ago. "I was walking home from school. It kinda just popped out of nowhere and grabbed me. I really thought I was screwed that time."  
"Who saved you?"  
"The shinigami who's stationed here actually did his damn job for once."  
"I see...Sorry."  
"What for?"  
"Not being here."

Karin shook her head. "Look, you can't be here all the time. You can however, get more shinigami stationed here."  
Tōshirō smiled. "I'll look into it."  
"You better." Tōshirō nodded. "So what are you here for this time?"  
"Hollows. Again."  
Karin rolled her eyes. "Are you the only one in Soul Society who has a brain? They know this city's a hotspot, instead of sending people to investigate the increase of hollows, which is almost always caused by the citizens, which they can't stop, they should just station more shinigami here."

Tōshirō nodded. "I know. I agree. But the Head Captain wants to keep track of those emitting the most reiatsu. I will try to get more shinigami round here. Kuchiki was trying to get that happen, but not everyone trusts her."  
"Rukia? Why not?"  
"There's a few commanding officers who can't seem to get over the fact that she's an ex-convict."  
Karin stared at Tōshirō. "Huh? Rukia? You're kidding right? She's so sweet!"  
Tōshirō shrugged. "I know she's a good person. But she still committed a crime. Some people can't seem to forget that. Despite that it led to one of their best soldiers."

Karin paused for a moment before replying. "My brother?"  
"Yeah."  
"So what was the crime? Getting too involved with humans?"  
"No, if that was it I would be in prison by now. She transferred her powers to your brother."  
Karin nodded. "Well hopefully they'll listen to you."  
"Hopefully."  
"Hey you know that your Head Captain person wants to keep track of people with the most reiatsu? Whose on top of that list?"

Tōshirō gave her a pointed a look. "After your brother lost his powers, it became you."  
"Huh? But what about Orihime and that lot?"  
"They can control it. You can't. So you're on the top."  
"Ah. Well that would explain a lot."  
"Yeah."  
"Hey, why can't you teach me how to control it then?"  
"I would, but I've been ordered not to."

Karin looked beyond confused. "Why not?"  
"Well I can't explain it fully because it's something your father or your brother should tell you, but, you have the potential to become a shinigami like your brother did."  
"...Surely that would only happen if powers got transferred to me like Ichigo though?"  
Tōshirō shook his head. "Not necessarily. In the past year it's become apparent that it's a little more complicated than that."  
"But how does that make sense? I'm completely human...Unless..."

Tōshirō looked over to her, worried that she was going to catch on. "What on earth are you talking about Kurosaki?"  
"Don't call me Kurosaki, call me Karin and shut up a second." 'Rukia transferred her powers to Ichigo'  
"Kurosaki-"  
Karin put her hand over Tōshirō's mouth. "Shut up!" 'But...it makes no sense that she would transfer all of it so...Something happened? Ichigo took them? Without realising it? He got injured after Rukia left, so his power depended on her being near? But he managed to use them again after she left...So he got some of his own?'

Tōshirō had paused for a moment, a little surprised by what Karin had done before grabbing Karin's wrist tightly and pulling her hand away from his face and spinning her round to face him.  
"Ichigo had shinigami powers of his own somehow. He had them already but..."  
Tōshirō groaned internally. Sometimes he hated that she was so intelligent. He wondered if she got it from her mother.

"They were dormant? But Rukia set them off? So I also have dormant shinigami powers?"  
Tōshirō scrunched up his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose before nodding, knowing full well that it was not his place to tell her this. "Yes. Which is why I've been ordered not to teach you anything."  
"Because there's a worry it's gonna set them off."  
"Basically."  
Karin thought for a moment. "Would that be a bad thing though?"  
"We don't know. That's why we're leaving it. For all we know you could follow in your brother's footsteps, or your human body might not take it and give up."  
"Human body? So my soul's not human?"

Tōshirō pinched the bridge of his nose again, realising his mistake. "Not completely."  
"But I thought you did shinigami stuff separated from your body, why would my having shinigami powers effect my body?"  
Toshiro struggled to find the right words. "It's hard to explain...If...Well I mean..If you find yourself in serious danger you usually act on impulse right?" Karin nodded so Tōshirō continued. You could wake up your powers without realising and use them, while still in your human body."  
"And that's not supposed to happen?"  
"No. There was an incident a couple decades ago where a teenage boy found himself facing a powerful hollow."  
"What happened?"  
"He used his powers...And set himself alight at the same time. Turns out he had a fire-based Zanpaktō. He burned to death."

Karin's eyes widened. "Oh."  
"That's why we don't want to teach you anything, in case that sort of thing happens again."  
Karin nodded. "Yeah...Although there's one thing I don't get. How do humans get shinigami powers? Aren't humans and shinigami technically different species?"  
"Yeah but they aren't that different, so the two species can interbreed."  
"Causing hybrids that aren't really supposed to exist."  
"Yeah."  
"Wait but doesn't that mean that somewhere in my family tree there's a shinigami?"

Tōshirō glared at her. "How the hell do you do that?"  
"Do what?"  
"Get me to say things I shouldn't!"

Karin shrugged a little awkwardly. "You always carefully calculate what to say when you're with other people, like you're putting a shield between you and the other person, but you don't with me. You let yourself be, well you, around me. You drop that shield, so you say what you're thinking rather than what you should say. I don't think you're used to having your shields down either, which is why you give information so easily."  
Tōshirō stared at Karin. He didn't expect her to say that.  
Karin shrugged. "That's what it seems like anyway. I gotta go or else my dad will whine at me for being late for dinner. See ya."

Tōshirō watched her leave, mulling over what she had said. It's true that he didn't think too hard about what he said to Karin, he just said what came to mind. That last conversation was proof enough of that. He wouldn't have said that he wasn't himself around other people but he did feel more natural around her. He groaned out loud as he started to wander round the city. She was more of a pain than he first realised.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Tōshirō stared out at the cityscape, looking down at all of the people walking here and there, lights illuminating the night sky.  
"Hey!"  
Tōshirō jumped and almost fell off the roof. "Kurosaki what the hell!"  
Karin laughed. "Did you forget that I can actually sense reiatsu unlike my brother?"  
"...Maybe."  
Karin grinned. "Why are you on the roof anyway?"  
"It's pretty good place to observe the city, in case anything bad happens."

The real reason Tōshirō was on the Kurosaki roof was that he was worried, not that he was going to tell her. He knew for a while that Karin's dormant shinigami powers could pose a danger to her, but it didn't really dawn on him until he saw the fear on her face. He wanted to make sure she was ok, she had found out a lot of quite frankly scary information that she probably would've been happier without knowing today.

"How are you?"  
Karin shrugged, a little thrown off by the question. "Um, ok. Why?"  
"It couldn't have been fun finding all that information out today."  
Karin nodded. "Oh that. Don't worry about that. The way I see it is knowledge is power. It's better for me to know than for me to be clueless."  
"You were never clueless. You figured out half of it on your own."

Karin sat down close to him. "Only because you led me there. When we first met I had no idea. I just knew I had seen some really weird stuff. You're the only one who tells me stuff. And if it wasn't for half of the stuff you've told me I'd probably be dead by now. So do me a favour and never apologise for telling me these things, kay?"  
Tōshirō nodded. "I'm seriously the only person who tells you anything?"  
"Yeah. Ichigo completely refuses to say anything, even when I confront him. I think Rukia's pretty sure that I know about shinigami, but doesn't want to confirm it just in case she's wrong-" Karin stopped as she saw Tōshirō's confused expression. "What?"  
"What do you mean?"

"I dunno how to explain it. You know when you have a crush on someone, and in some cases you'll see signs that they like you back? To the point where you're like 90 percent sure they like you back, but that 10 percent is enough to scare you out of saying anything. Because no one wants to confess to someone, thinking they like you back when it turns out they don't and they were just super friendly or something and you misconstrued their actions, you know? It's the same thing. I think Rukia knows that I know about shinigami, but doesn't know completely for sure, so she's reluctant to say anything, because what if I didn't know anything all along and she just revealed the whole shinigami thing to a human?"  
Tōshirō nodded. "I get what you mean."  
"You do? Does that mean you've had a crush before?"

Tōshirō paused, realising that Karin had managed to get information out of him again. He spoke with a smile on his face. "I hope you know that I despise you."  
Karin laughed. "Aww, you know you love me." Tōshirō turned his head towards her rather suddenly. "What? Oh I'm not freaking you our or anything am I?"  
Tōshirō shook his head. "No, it's just that the word love is rarely tossed around in Soul Society. I rarely hear it. I forget that humans are generally, well much more open, so it surprised me."  
"You're telling me that you don't get told by people that they love you? Even family?"  
"My grandmother, who I rarely see these days has told me that she loves me, and Matsumoto's implied it very occasionally, but other than that, no I don't."

"That seems kinda bizarre. I mean my dad will tell me that he loves me at least twice a day, Yuzu says it fairly regularly, even Ichigo who's usually terrible with feelings tells me often enough. I suppose it's a more common thing here. I say it pretty regularly, to family and friends. I don't really think about it."  
Tōshirō nodded. "See, in Soul Society emotions are often seen as a weakness. So if someone tells you they love you, they really mean it."  
"I see. Doesn't that just put so much more pressure onto confessing your feelings to people?"  
"Yeah. To be honest I think the idea of emotions being a weakness gets so ingrained into shinigami that they themselves can rarely tell if they like someone, let alone tell that person."

Karin nodded. "Wow so the marriage rate must be really low."  
"I wouldn't even call it a rate, marriage is more of an occasional happening in Soul Society."  
"Well that's kinda sad. Most people here will get married at least once."  
"At least once?"  
"Well not all marriages are successful. Divorces aren't exactly rare."  
"A divorce being a separation?"  
"Yeah, you don't know?"  
"I've never heard of any married people splitting up in Soul Society. It's usually the case that one dies, which ends the marriage."

Karin whistled. "No divorces, now that seems like a strange concepts. It's like one extreme to the other. Both worlds need to meet in the middle."  
"Yeah but that's when hybrids like you happen."  
"Hey don't call me a hybrid! Besides, it's not like I turned out so bad."  
"You turned out great, but you can be a huge danger to yourself without even realising. Not the best genetics."  
"Maybe not. Whoa wait Soul Society wouldn't try to control me having children or anything would they?"

Tōshirō shook his head. "I really doubt we have that authority over humans. They may give you advice on it. To be honest it would entirely depend on who you had children with."  
"It would?"  
"Well yeah. Having children with a shinigami would actually be a lot less problematic than having children with a human."  
"How so?"  
"Well human DNA is just human DNA. It doesn't have the potential to give you powers. Shinigami DNA is more dominant because even a small dormant amount can become a problem if there's enough danger around. So if you had a child that was three quarters shinigami you can almost guarantee that the child will be a shinigami. If you had a child that was one quarter shinigami, well you just wouldn't know."

Karin nodded. "Well this is a conversation I'd never thought I'd have."  
Tōshirō smiled. "Tell me about it."  
"You know I just realised something."  
"What?"  
"You said that if I have children they're either gonna be three quarters shinigami or one quarter shinigami, which means I must be half shinigami."  
"Oh fuck."  
Karin laughed. "You shouldn't beat yourself up about it. It actually makes a lot of things make a lot more sense."

Tōshirō raised an eyebrow. "Really?"  
"Yeah. Like how my dad wasn't particularly worried when Ichigo disappeared for weeks on end. He knew. He knew everything."  
Tōshirō nodded. "Still, I shouldn't have said anything. I've told you far too much over the years."  
"Maybe, but I think it's done more good than harm. When it comes to me anyway. I'm not stupid enough to go round telling people all the things you've told me. And some of the information you've told me saved my life. Or made my life make a lot more sense as the case maybe. Besides, it makes me happy knowing that you can talk easily to someone, even if it is a girl like 10 times younger than you who lives in a different world."

Tōshirō gave her a small smile. "Yeah, it would've made my life a lot easier if you closer to home."  
Karin nodded. "Probably. Life is strange that way. They say people who match always find each other in the end though."  
Tōshirō raised an eyebrow. "Red string of fate?"  
"Huh...I thought it was the red thread of destiny...But yeah. Some people think it only works with lovers, but others think it relates to all sorts of relationships. I kinda lean towards the latter."  
"I'm surprised you of all people believe in it."

"I usually wouldn't with this sort of thing. But to be honest there's something comforting about it. I hate the idea that my fate has been decided for me already, I mean my life is my life you know, but it's a nice thought that I will find the right person in the end because I'm connected to them. I never used to believe in it. But after I found out about shinigami it got me wondering. Humans don't die as such, they just lose their bodies. They become souls or shinigami."  
"Or hollows."  
"Or hollows. But they all die too. It doesn't make sense to say that that is when life definitely ends. It seems much more logical to assume that they change into something else, into another dimension. Life cycles round. I just think it's a really nice a concept that those who belong together will always be connected."

Tōshirō mused over Karin's words. She had a point. Tōshirō didn't spend time wondering about the future of his love life as humans supposedly did, but it was comforting thought that you'd find them one or another, in the end. And given how unstable Karin's life had become, he could understand why she would cling to the idea of the red string of fate, because it really was a comforting thought, even if neither of them quite believed it.

"It is a nice concept, but how are you supposed to know when you find them?"  
Karin shrugged before turning her head to look at the city below them. "Presumably you fall in love. Which is said to be something you can only really understand when you're in it."  
"From what I've seen even then it's confusing."  
Karin smiled. "Yeah. I think it's really hard to understand when you love someone. I think sometimes it just dawns on you that you really care about someone. That you worry about them all the time, that you want to protect them, that you want to spend a lot of time with them, you know?"

Tōshirō turned to Karin, watching her watching the city. "I know." He hadn't thought about it that way. That way actually made sense. He had never really thought about the red string of fate, having always dismissed it as a myth, but it was true that certain people were more suited for each other. And Karin had heard at least one version of the concept that involved more than one type of relationship. Maybe the red string of fate had some merit to it. Because he did want to protect Karin, and he liked spending time with her, and he did worry about her. So maybe he had found the other end of his red string. Now all he had to find out was what kind of relationship it was. Tōshirō bit back a sigh as he looked over to Karin again. Something told him that wasn't going to be easy.


	15. Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He didn't know why he was surprised that she could play the guitar, given the obsession humans seemed to have for music.

Tōshirō landed neatly on a nearby building before sheathing his zanpakto. He straightened his uniform, it having become dishevelled while dispatching a couple of hollows. Relief came across his face briefly. It seemed that the number of hollows coming to Karakura was stabling instead of increasing, ever since he started teaching Karin how to control her reiatsu a bit better. It was comforting to know that not only was he wasting his time teaching Karin, but she was in less danger than she could've ended up being in.

The thought brought him back to the Kurosaki girl herself, and the fact that she was currently alone in her house. Tōshirō doubted that harm would come to her while in her own home, but he felt somewhat uncomfortable anyway. Truth be told he felt uncomfortable at the fact that he felt uncomfortable. He shouldn't be this worried about her. She could take care of herself and he knew that. But danger seemed to have a way of finding the Kurosakis. Tōshirō sighed as he shook off the feeling, and made his way back to the Kurosaki household.

Tōshirō was about to swing his way into the house through the window until he heard something that made him pause. Instead, he quietly made his way through the house until he found the source of the sound. An ever so subtle smile graced his face as he leant against the doorway of the living room, watching Karin play on an acoustic guitar, quite skilfully as well. He wasn't sure it was a good idea to hang around unannounced, but he didn't want to interrupt her. To Tōshirō's surprise, she started singing.

It wasn't a song he knew, but that wasn't surprising, there being several decades between the two of them. Her voice was quiet, but it filled the silent room easily. He had never heard her voice soft like this. He had only really heard her voice filled with excitement, contentment, or much to Tōshirō's dismay, distress. It was weird to hear a tone he had never heard before, it reminded him that they hadn't actually spent as much time with each other than he would've liked. He didn't know her as well as he wished. It was a beautiful tone too, fitting the song perfectly. Tōshirō would be lying if he said that she had the voice of an angel, but he loved it nonetheless.

Before he knew it, she had stopped and turned round to face him, startling Tōshirō. "You're allowed to come into the room you know."  
Tōshirō refused to let his embarrassment show on his face. "I didn't want to interrupt you."  
Karin smiled slightly. "Dude, I knew you were there."  
"You did?"  
"I learnt to sense your presence months ago." Tōshirō raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue. "You have a very distinct reiatsu. Well I mean, everyone's is different, but yours seems to stand out."

Tōshirō nodded while walking into the room, sitting down opposite her. "Can you sense anyone else like that?"  
"Ichi-nii. And Rukia, for most of the time anyway. Why?"  
"Hmm. From the sounds of it you'll get better than your brother at sensing reiatsu."  
Karin grinned. "He's been a shinigami for years, does he really suck that badly?"  
"He's never been that good at manipulating and sensing reiatsu. Though admittedly he does make up for that with brute force."  
"Sounds about right."

Tōshirō looked up at Karin before speaking again. "What was that song you were singing?"  
Karin pulled her ponytail tighter. "I don't really know. I just remember my mother singing it to me."  
"Ah." Tōshirō may not know as much as he would like about Karin, but he knew that her mother was a bit of a tough topic for her. "It's beautiful."  
Karin smiled. "I think so too."  
"Am I right in thinking that that's a guitar?"

Karin nodded. "You don't have them in Soul Society?"  
"No, we have older musical instruments though."  
"So how did you know it's a guitar?"  
"Somehow human culture is seeping through to ours. I personally blame your brother. Although that guitar looks a lot different than the type I'm familiar with."  
Karin spoke as she changed her position so she was cross-legged. "Oh? Maybe it was an electric guitar you saw?"  
Tōshirō stared at her blankly. "Possibly?"  
"Wait here."

Tōshirō did what he was told and watched Karin run up the stairs. After a minute or so she was coming back down with another guitar in her hand.  
"This is an electric guitar. More familiar?"  
"Actually yeah. How do the two differ?"  
Karin leaned back on the sofa she had just sat down on while contemplating an answer. "Well an acoustic," she pointed to the one she was playing earlier, "can be played on it's own, whereas to sound right you need to plug the electric into an amp. The sound is pretty different too. I would demonstrate, but the amp's upstairs and I'm not running up again."

"Lazy."  
Karin gave him a mock look of offence, knowing that he was joking with her, before smiling. "Not lazy, tired. It's late. Besides are you really interested?"  
"Actually, yeah. Music isn't really a big thing at home, but it seems to have such a following here. I mean the fact that you have two guitars proves that."  
Karin shook her head lightly. "The electric one isn't mine, it's Ichi-nii's."  
"Still."  
Karin shrugged. "I see your point. Do you want me to teach you how to play? Well the basics at least? I bet you're the type that learns quickly." She said the last sentence with a cheeky smile on her face that made it hard for Tōshirō to resist smiling as well.

Tōshirō shrugged. "Why not?"  
Karin smiled slightly as she got up and gave the acoustic guitar to Tōshirō, sitting down on the arm of his chair before moving the guitar so Tōshirō was holding it properly. Carefully she started adjusting his finger placement. "Press those three fingers down." Tōshirō did as he was told. "Ok, now move your palm so those three fingertips are the only thing pressing down on the strings." After Tōshirō followed her instructions she gave him a pick to hold with his other hand. "Now strum all of the six strings in one motion." Tōshirō obeyed, resulting in a harmonious, if very short sound. Karin smiled. "Congrats, you just played a G chord."

Tōshirō turned slightly to look up at her, "That's all there is to it?"  
Karin nodded. "Yep. Songs are made up of several chords put together. The trick is changing your finger placement to each chord in time." Tōshirō nodded. "Are you ok?"  
The shinigami raised an eyebrow. "I'm fine. Why?"  
"Your face is red."

Tōshirō fought hard to not let his face get any redder. Truth was, it was very hard to ignore how close Karin had gotten to him while she instructing him. While she was changing his finger placement she had ended up pressing up against him so she could reach properly, and well, feeling her 'figure' push up against him had made him a little flustered.

To make matters worse, the Kurosaki in question had changed her position and swivelled so she was now facing his side with one leg tucked underneath her, the other hanging in between his. Did the girl have any concept of personal space? As Karin pressed her hand against his forehead he concluded that apparently, she did not. "You don't feel particularly warm."  
'That's what you think'  
"I wonder why you've gone red." Tōshirō supposed this sort of curiosity was kind of inevitable given she was a nurse. She spoke up again as she pressed the back of her hand against his cheek. "Blushing?"

Tōshirō's eyes shot up to meet hers for a brief moment before darting away again. He couldn't say anything. Lying wouldn't work, she could always tell when he lied, somehow. His train of thought was interrupted when he saw Karin grinning out of the corner of his eye. "You're so cute!"  
His head instantly snapped to face her. "I am not!"  
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, making his face go about 10 shades deeper. "I beg to differ." Before Tōshirō could reply with anything, his phone started beeping. "Another hollow already?"

Tōshirō dug his phone out of his uniform. "Apparently."  
"Damn, I can't torture you more."  
Tōshirō gave Karin a glare, making her smirk. "I gotta go."  
She nodded. "Go already, you don't have to worry, I'll still be here when you get back." She winked after she finished talking. Tōshirō glared at her again, cheeks tinged with pink, before he left the house. He had hoped that knowing she was deliberately trying to get him to blush would stop him from doing so, but it would appear that it did not make the slightest bit of difference. He practically felt powerless when it came to Karin. What made it worse was that he was fine with it.


	16. Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karin wasn't sure what classified as 'normal' for other people, all she did know that her version of normal was not it. She didn't care though. She loved her version of normal.

Karin had given up on normal a long time ago. It was a foreign concept to her. How could you define normal anyway? It differed from person to person. Personally, she would've liked to define normal as someone who goes to school, has friends and you know, doesn't get attacked on a regular basis. Karin looked over to the not so little any more Captain, who was peacefully sleeping on the sofa.

What had become 'normal' for her was almost disturbing. She literally saw dead people regularly, even occasionally getting harassed by them (the ghost who had appeared while she was getting changed got an earful to say the least). Her life ended up in danger more often than she cared to admit, and because of that she always seemed to be injured in some way, having bruises or little cuts, and occasionally something worse.

She always got rescued though. By the Captain who had practically been permanently stationed in the human world due to the stupid amount of hollow attacks that had been taking place recently. Who she happened to be dating. Karin was dating a dead person, who was well over a century old. Oh, and he just so happened to the youngest Captain ever and was just generally brilliant. Totally normal. And not complicated at all.

Karin's attention was brought to the sofa when Tōshirō let out a soft sigh as he rolled over slightly, making her smile. She wouldn't have her distorted version of normal any other way though. Normal for other people was no where near as fun as normal was for her. Even if it was a tad dangerous at times.


	17. Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karin came to the conclusion that Tōshirō worked too much and didn't have enough fun, so she dragged him back to her house to watch a movie. However Karin ended up focusing on another activity that was much more fun for her instead.

"So...What do you do for fun?"

The question took Tōshirō by surprise. He had never actually been asked that question, so he had never really thought about it. What did he do for fun?

Karin watched him closely. "Jeez Tōshirō if you have to think about it so hard then you clearly don't have enough fun."

He shrugged. "What do you expect? I'm a Captain, I tend to be busy."

"That's hardly the point. All work and no play is unhealthy. It's a good thing you have me."

"Oh?"

Karin grinned at him. "You know, to guide you in all things fun."

"Knowing you that means playing football."

"Well we don't have to do that. There are plenty of other fun things we could do."

Tōshirō sighed, giving in. "Like what?"

Karin shifted her body so she was facing Tōshirō a bit more, prompting him to do the same. "Depends, what sort of thing do you want to do? Seeing as you're always working, maybe something relaxing would be better?"

Tōshirō was a little apprehensive, having no idea what Karin's idea of 'relaxing' was. "I guess?"

XxXxXxX

Before Tōshirō knew what was going on he had somehow ended up sat down on the sofa at the Kurosaki household, watching Karin 'put a film in the player', whatever that meant. Karin grabbed a remote before collapsing down onto the sofa next to Tōshirō. The shinigami watched Karin navigate the menu screen, not really sure what to expect. Karin had decided to pick Scott Pilgrim as the first film Tōshirō would watch. Most people she knew loved it, and because Tōshirō had played video games with her a few times in the past, he should understand at least some of the references, which wouldn't be the case with a few of her other films.

"So, what is this exactly?"

Karin paused for a moment. "It's a story, but told in a visual way instead of written. You just watch it."

Tōshirō nodded. He wasn't a hundred percent sure how a story could be told in a visual format, but he supposed if he watched it he'd find out.

Tōshirō actually found it enjoyable, even if it was a little over the top, but he acknowledged that that was probably part of the film's charm. It reminded of him of video games, just like Karin said it would. He cringed slightly as the scene changed to the character called Ramona kissing the title character while clad in nothing but her underwear. "They're not gonna..."

Karin smiled. "Nah, you can relax, the film's only a 12."

"Huh?"

"It means humans from the age of 12 can watch it, although most people read it as children can watch it as long as they have their parents permission."

Tōshirō raised his eyebrows. "Children watch this?"

Karin shrugged. "Yeah. So? It's not really a big deal, I mean they've already stopped."

"Still, it seems a bit much."

Karin shrugged again. "Maybe, depends on the child I guess. I mean I can't remember when I didn't know what sex was."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Although when I was younger I didn't get why people did it. I thought it was icky. When did you find out then?"

Tōshirō sighed, knowing that if he didn't answer now then Karin would just get it out of him later. "When I was in the academy, I er...ended up...walking into-"

Karin winced before interrupting. "That's an awkward way to find out. But really, only until you were in the academy?"

"Well I was a kid back then."

"You were adult enough to make your own decisions. I guess the human world is more open about sexuality than Soul Society."

"You make it sound like a good thing."

Karin rolled her eyes. "It is, if you ask me. It's led to safer sex on a huge scale, people are more comfortable with themselves and their...urges, teenagers aren't afraid to ask questions, so on and so on."

"How do you know all this?"

"Dude, I'm a nurse at a local health clinic. We get people panicking about pregnancy scares and questions about contraceptives all the time. That's not the sort of thing you'd go to the hospital to, so people tend to come here. After I turned 13 dad let me see patients with those issues because he figured I was mature enough at that point. You pick up stuff."

Tōshirō nodded, looking a little uncomfortable. "I see."

"Yeah, hopefully now when I do have sex for the first time I won't be a fumbling mess because I'll actually have a vague clue about what I am doing."

Karin watched Tōshirō go bright red with glee in her eyes and a smirk on her face. After watching him interact with his Vice-Captain many times Karin had figured out the topics that she could tease him about. Height was the first, but it didn't really work any more as Tōshirō had grown taller than her now. The second was girls, or rather the implication that he was interested in girls. Karin had theorised that sex would make him even more embarrassed, and as she was never one to waste an opportunity, she decided to test her theory out when the conversation turned towards said topic. So she proudly watched as Tōshirō went redder than she had ever seen a person go. Looks like she had found his weakest spot. It also looked like she had found a new fun activity.

XxXxXxX

Karin sat on the roof, bored now that Tōshirō had fallen asleep. He was an early riser, which meant he fell asleep early too. Karin was more of a night person.

"You know one of these days that's not gonna work any more."

Karin smiled, knowing exactly what Rangiku was talking about. "My, were you spying on us again?"

"Of course."

Karin rolled her eyes. Knowing exactly what the older woman was like. They were a lot closer than the Captain knew. Rangiku was fully aware of the crush Karin had for Tōshirō. Rangiku also knew that the young shinigami liked her too, but hadn't realised it yet. There were little clues that she had picked up on, things that he himself was ignorant to. For example, whenever Rangiku would tease her Captain about liking girls, he would calmly deny he liked any woman she suggested, until she suggested Karin, who he would always vehemently deny, with a light blush on his face. Ever since Rangiku noticed these little clues and put two and two together, she had made it her personal mission to make the two of them a couple.

The older shinigami sat down next to Karin. "My point still stands. He's had a growth spurt."

"I noticed."

"It's only a matter of time before his emotional maturity catches up. The sexual stuff won't embarrass him for much longer. He turned the whole teasing him about his height back onto you now that you're shorter than him. If you're not careful he might turn this round on you as well."

Karin grinned, knowing that that was exactly what Rangiku was hoping for. She played along anyway. "But Rangiku, that's when the real fun begins."


	18. Flower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toshiro wasn't at all surprised that she was so upset. He just hoped he could make her feel better.

"Ugh I can't believe I actually lost it!"

Tōshirō sighed. "It wasn't your fault Karin. With the way the hollow cut into your neck it was inevitable that the necklace would break and fall off you. If anything this is my fault."

Karin shot him a glare. "Stop being dumb. You weren't even in this world when the hollow attacked me. Unless you want to be joined at the hip, you can't protect me 24/7."

Karin kicked a nearby railing before huffing and sitting down on the floor, having given up hope on finding the necklace. It had been a week now. Tōshirō sat down next to her, not really knowing what to say. He knew how important the necklace was to her. She had found it one day while going through a closet the family had used as a storage space. It had been her mother's. A very fine chain with a ornate flower pendant with some sort of gemstone representing the pollen. The flower that the pendant depicted was a forget-me-not, the minute Karin said it he knew why she had decided to wear it. The literal meaning of the flower was 'do not forget me'. It was easy to see why she developed an attachment to her mother's necklace when it had that meaning connected to it. Ever since she found it he had never seen her without it. So he understood why she was so upset that she had lost it. But he didn't know what to say. He had seen her angry several times. He had seen her frustrated plenty of times too. But he had never seen her on the verge of tears before.

He cautiously put his arm around her shoulders, not daring to pull her closer to him in case she took it the wrong way. But instead she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. A few moments passed before Karin finally broke down and cried. He pulled her into a hug, feeling her body shake as she soaked the shoulder of his t-shirt. It was better she cried now, rather than suppressing her feelings. He knew this wasn't a hundred percent about the necklace. A couple of months ago, when she had been a half asleep, she admitted that the older she got the less she remembered about her mother. This revelation didn't surprise Tōshirō, after all Karin had only been about 5 when she died. But understandably, the idea of forgetting her mother was stressing her out. The necklace had been an actual solid, tangible link to her mother. And now it was gone. He had literally never seen her cry before, he could understand why she was. And to be perfectly honest, it broke his heart a little.

XxXxXxX

Karin bit back a sigh as she collapsed onto her bed. It had been an interesting day to say the least. She had turned sixteen. Her dad had gone all out like usual, spoiling her and Yuzu all day. Ichigo had come round, along with some unexpected guests. It ended up resulting in a huge lunch shared by her family, Rukia, Rangiku and Tōshirō, followed by birthday cake. But soon afterwards some sort of incident at Soul Society meant that Rangiku and Tōshirō had to go back before it had even hit two o'clock in the afternoon. Karin supposed she should feel lucky that at least Rukia and Ichigo were allowed to stay.

She was about to get up to get changed into pyjamas when she noticed a box on the floor by her bed. Karin figured that she must've knocked it off when she jumped onto the mattress. Reaching down to get it, she realised it was a gift. It was a blue jewellery box with a white bow on it. She changed her position so she was sat cross-legged before she carefully undid the bow. Upon opening the box she found a hastily-written note that had been folded several times over. More interested in the note than the box she unfolded it and started to read.

Karin,

I wish I could've stayed for you entire birthday, but unfortunately I cannot ignore orders.

I would've given this to you on White Day but custom orders take a lot longer to receive as they have to make the pendant from scratch.

Happy Birthday,

Tōshirō.

He had custom ordered a necklace for her? But custom ordered stuff was always so much more expensive than regular ordered stuff. She wasn't sure she was comfortable with the idea of Tōshirō spending so much money on her. She sighed as she put the note down and grabbed the jewellery box. She stared at the necklace inside. It was an almost perfect replica of the necklace she had lost months ago. The petals were slightly different but everything else was accurate. Her eyes travelled to the gemstone in the middle. After pulling it out of the box she noticed that there was a hallmark on the back of the pendant as well. He had custom ordered a real silver necklace that had a real gemstone in the pendant. He had to have spent hundreds on it. There was no way she could keep it. It was ridiculous, him spending so much money on her. She let a small smile appear on her face. It was the thought that count though.

XxXxXxX

Karin sat at their usual spot, jewellery box in hand, waiting for Tōshirō to arrive. He was supposed to be in the human world five minutes ago, but she supposed something must've happened on his end to pull him off schedule. Another five minutes passed before she finally felt his reiatsu. She grumbled slightly as she moved off the railing to sit on the grassy hill instead. With the sun in the position that it was in, the railing had started to heat up. "Stupid summer."

"I know the feeling."

Karin turned her head slightly to see Tōshirō out of one eye before turning her head to face the view of the city again. "Tōshirō I can't accept this." Tōshirō rolled his eyes before sitting down on the grass just behind her after grabbing the box she had been holding up. "I appreciate it, I really do, I mean it's such a nice gift, but it's too nice." Tōshirō had been mm-ing along, pretending to be considering her explanation while he had taken the necklace out of the box. "It's too expens...What are you doing?"

Surprised as she was that Tōshirō had suddenly gathered all of her hair and put it over one of her shoulders she still didn't turn. It was only when she felt the coolness of the metal around her neck that she realised what he was doing. She turned round to stop him but he had already done it up. "Hey, don't just ignore me! You can't just do what you want!"

Tōshirō turned her back round so they were both facing the same way again. Tōshirō leaned forward and rested his head on her shoulder, speaking quietly. "Shut up and let me spoil you. If I was unsure about getting it for you then I wouldn't have gone to so much trouble now would I?"

Karin tried to ignore how hot her face felt. "That's not the point. It's too much. I can't keep it."

"Well you're just going to have to because I'm not taking it back."

"Why not?"

"I want you to have it. You were so upset when you lost the original one. I know this isn't the same, but still..."

"You're not gonna budge on this at all are you?"

"Nope."

Karin rolled her eyes as she leaned back on Tōshirō. "Fine." She tilted her head up to see a small smile on the shinigami's face, making her smile too. "Tōshirō?"

"Mm?"

"Thank you."

As a response Tōshirō looked down at the girl in his arms and gave her a proper, very rare, smile, causing her to blush before hastily looking away.


	19. Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "He's right Karin. If you weren't qualified for this position you wouldn't have got it. You'll be great! You don't need to be so worried. Besides, Tōshirō's really nice once you get to know him." AU.

Karin sighed heavily, picking at her food. Renji slapped an arm around her. "C'mon, eat. You'll be fine."

Momo nodded. "He's right Karin. If you weren't qualified for this position you wouldn't have got it. You'll be great! You don't need to be so worried. Besides, Tōshirō's really nice once you get to know him." Karin smiled at Momo. Her words didn't stop her from being nervous, but they did reassure her a little bit.

By the time Karin had managed to eat half of her dinner, the bar had a lot more people in it. Momo watched as Renji sat down with his third drink. "Aren't you working tomorrow?"

"Aww Momo don't stop him drinking! Drunk Renji is hilarious!"

Momo turned to Rangiku. "Oh! When did you get here?"

"Just a minute ago. Oh there's my new third seat! I can't wait to see you in our squad tomorrow!"

Karin smiled. She hadn't spent much time with Rangiku but Karin knew that Rangiku was nice and always meant well. She gave Rangiku a little wave. "Hi."

"Ah!" Rangiku sat down next to Rangiku and hugged her. "You're so cute! I forget, how old are you?"

Rangiku's eccentric behaviour didn't faze Karin at all, due to who her father was. "157."

"Gosh, that young! You'll do so well, just you wait. It's in your blood. I'm sure you'll get along with the Captain too, with how hard-working you must be!"

Karin nodded. "I hope so."

Rangiku gave her a huge grin. "You totally will! You're both hard working and dedicated. There's not much of an age gap either. Only a hundred years or so."

That caught Karin's attention. That really wasn't that much difference. For your average shinigami, that was equivalent to about ten human years. But when you had higher reiatsu, you aged slower, and given he was a Captain it was probably more like five human years. "Seriously? But that means that he would've been a kid when he became a Captain."

Rangiku nodded, a proud look on her face. "Yep. The youngest shinigami ever to be appointed Captain."

Karin frowned. "Bet it's hard to impress him."

Renji shook his head. "Nah. From what I've seen, he assumes everyone's average until it's been proven otherwise. If you do something impressive, he'll be impressed."

Momo gave Karin a kind smile. "And getting the third seat position is impressive. He'll like you, I promise."

XxXxXxX

"Oh my god." Tōshirō nearly had a heart attack when he saw his office. It was neat. Clean and more organised than it had been in decades.

"Oh!" Karin bowed respectfully. "Captain Hitsugaya, um, when I came in to find the paperwork I was supposed to do I struggled to find it because, well the paperwork was kinda everywhere so I started sorting out the paperwork into piles while trying to find it and I ended up organising all of it." It was true. The paperwork had been all over the place and Karin didn't know where to start to find hers. She didn't want to just throw it around in case she damaged any, so she had ended up organising it into piles. By the time she had found her folder of paperwork, she was half way through the entire office and figured she might as well do the other half. Karin was the type of person who either did things properly, or not at all. She didn't think about the consequences though. Her new Captain looked quite shocked. Maybe he liked it the old way? "I hope that's ok?"

Tōshirō's face was blank as he nodded. "You managed to organise the entire office in one afternoon?"

Karin still couldn't tell if her Captain was pleased or horrified. "Um, yeah...I just sorted them into a couple of piles. There wasn't that much. A pile for you, a pile for Rangiku, a pile for me, and a pile for the fourth seat. I also ordered them by what date they need to be completed, although I only did that roughly, so it might not be a hundred percent in order."

"That's...amazing."

Karin's face broke out in a grin. "Really?"

Tōshirō nodded. "You've made my day. Actually, my whole week. So, you're my new third seat?"

"Yes."

He raised an eyebrow. "And you're still here in my office after organising it because?"

"Oh, I figured I would submit the paperwork I had already done, given that I'm about to finish my shift."

"Wait, so not only did you organise my office and my paperwork, you also completed your own paperwork?"

"Actually not all of it. Sorry, I didn't have enough time."

Tōshirō struggled to keep his jaw from falling. "Well...you're certainly productive. I thought your recommendation letter was exaggerating, but clearly not. And you don't need to apologise for that, you've done very well for your first day."

Karin grinned again. "Thank you, Captain Hitsugaya."

Tōshirō couldn't stop a smile from gracing his face. Her smile was contagious. "I think you'll do well here Shiba."

"Ah, um, if you wouldn't mind Captain Hitsugaya, could you please call me by my first name? I much prefer Karin to Shiba."

Toshiro would usually refuse such a request, feeling it would be rude to refer to someone he had just met by their first name, but after putting in so much work on her first day and asking so politely, he could hardly refuse her. He was just glad he didn't compare her to her father or her brother, which he almost did. He guessed that if she didn't like being referred to as Shiba, she probably didn't like getting compared to her family either. "Fine. Good work Karin." She beamed at him.

XxXxXxX

Karin jumped as Momo poked her in the sides after sneaking up on her. "Oh god Momo, don't do that." Momo apologised as she sat down next to the younger shinigami. "What are you doing here anyway? I thought you went to the library on Tuesdays?"

Momo nodded. "I do, but I'm meeting Nanao here."

"Ah."

"I had lunch with Tōshirō today. He wouldn't stop talking about you."

Karin paused. "Oh?"

"He told me that you always make his day a bit better and that you make his life so much easier. He likes you a lot. I told you he would!"

Karin sighed. "I'm not sure that's a good thing though."

Momo pouted. Karin had been the third seat for the tenth squad for a month now, and she hadn't complained once. So she had absolutely no idea what Karin was on about. "Why wouldn't that be a good thing?"

"I may have a slight crush on him."

Momo couldn't stop the huge grin from spreading on her face. "You have a crush on him?"

Karin cringed when she caught sight of Momo's expression. "Kinda? I'm sure it'll pass. I mean it has to, he's my Captain for god's sake. It's so inappropriate."

"How long have you had this crush?"

"I don't remember."

Momo stared at the girl next to her. "Well that's clearly not true."

Karin sighed and slouched against the table, not seeing any point in lying to the older shinigami. "...The first day."

"You've had a crush on him for a month and you still think it'll pass?"

"I can hope right?"

Karin continued talking on and on about how she was sure she could either get other this crush or ignore it, but Momo wasn't listening. Due to knowing Tōshirō for so many decades, she knew exactly how to read him, and because of this, she knew for a fact that Tōshirō had a crush on Karin too. Although Momo doubted that Tōshirō actually knew this himself. Tōshirō had only really settled properly into adulthood a decade or so ago, so this was probably his first serious crush. And it was serious, with the way he talked about Karin. Momo couldn't stop from grinning. She couldn't wait to tell Rangiku and formulate a plan with her to get the two together.


	20. Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Momo watched Karin leave before turning back to Rangiku. "Ok, so how are we going to get them together?" Sequel to chapter 19. AU.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is basically a follow on from the last, seeing as people asked for a sequel (and I wanted to write a sequel) so yeah. But this kinda works as a stand alone piece as well. I hope you like it, and I'm sorry for keeping you guys waiting. Next chapter prompt is 'Purr'.

"Good god what on earth are you two planning?"

Rangiku turned round to face Karin. "Oh, nothing important!"

Karin arched an eyebrow. Working in the tenth squad for three months was long enough to know that Rangiku was clearly lying. Karin's first assumption was that Rangiku was planning some sort of party (her Captain had warned her to look out for such behaviour), but she doubted Momo would plan one with her. Still, she figured she should check. "You're not planning some office party are you?"

Rangiku grinned. "For once, no."

"Then...What?"

"You'll find out. If you don't, then I'll come clean one day. Maybe on your wedding day."

Momo couldn't stop the grin from spreading on her face. Karin stared at the two older shinigami before rolling her eyes and walking away, going back to her office, mumbling something about superior officers doing less work than lower ranking shinigami for more pay.

Momo watched Karin leave before turning back to Rangiku. "Ok, so how are we going to get them together?"

"I suppose I could actually throw an office party."

"What good would that do? They both hate that sort of thing."

Rangiku smirked. "Exactly. Those two will end up in a corner, or outside in the garden, hopefully together. They'd start talking and maybe things will work out."

"That's leaving an awful lot to chance. They might just talk about work or other boring topics, not about each other. Besides they could both just decide to leave the party."

Rangiku shrugged. "In my experience I have found alcohol works wonderfully as a catalyst for personal conversations. And if they do both leave, they'll be the only ones coming in to work the next day, so they'll be together alone then."

Momo sighed. She doubted this would have any sort of immediate effect, but then thinking about it, both Tōshirō and Karin were stubborn people, so spending one night together wasn't going to magically make them a couple. "I suppose it could be a first stepping stone to them getting together. But I think we need to be more meticulous. We can't leave so much to chance. And if it doesn't work I get to think of the next plan."

"Deal."

XxXxXxX

Tōshirō stopped suddenly. He had been making his way back from another squad, but something was off. He started walking instead of shunpoing to his division, a little apprehensive. There was more reiatsu in the area than usual. He could sense Karin, in her office, Rangiku, who was in his, but there was a good dozen also with her that he wasn't as familiar with. Tōshirō clenched his fists. Over the years he and his Vice-Captain had come to some sort of agreement. She would only host parties in the division if she didn't do it on weekdays, and as long as she cleared up afterwards. It was a Monday. It was four o'clock in the afternoon on a Monday. Whatever had possessed her to do this he didn't know, but he sure as hell knew he was going to put a stop to it.

He made his way to his office, making a point of slamming the door behind him. "Matsumoto!"

Said Vice-Captain bounced over to him, as if she wasn't throwing a party in his office at a completely inappropriate time. "What's up Captain?"

Tōshirō stared at her incredulously. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Throwing a party."

Tōshirō gritted his teeth. He may not have been as quick to anger as he was in his adolescent years, but he was still struggling to control himself. "It's four o'clock in the afternoon!"

"Is it? It's getting dark out."

"That's because it's December! That doesn't mean it's late! It's still office hours! I should be working! And so should you!"

"Oh come on Captain! It's Friday, loosen up a little."

Tōshirō's anger quickly changed to concern. "Matsumoto, it's Monday."

"Rangiku eyes widened. "It is?" She sighed as she sat down on one of the office sofas, staring blankly ahead. "That's not good."

Tōshirō sighed. Rangiku only ever got like this when she drunk non-stop for days, which she only ever did when something bad happened. "Just...Don't worry about it. But make sure you clean up. I'll go work somewhere else." He started walking to his desk before turning round again. "And make sure you drink lots of water, or eat a lot of bread, something like that, yeah?"

Rangiku nodded and watched her Captain walk to his desk, to walk back again.

"Where's my paperwork?"

"Oh I put it in Karin's office! She didn't want to join in, so I figured she'd keep it safe."

Tōshirō sighed and nodded before making his way to the door. Momo waited for the door to close behind him and made her way over to Rangiku. "How did it go?"

Rangiku smiled slyly. "Perfect. He bought everything, and he's going down to her office now."

"I'm still not sure I'm comfortable manipulating him like this."

"What's done is done, besides, if everything goes well, he'll be thanking me for it."

XxXxXxX

Tōshirō made the one minute walk down to his third seat's office. He knocked and waited a while, receiving no answer. He tried knocking louder, assuming the noise from the party made it hard for Karin to hear.

"Come in!"

Tōshirō walked into the small room, closing the door behind him out of habit. "Hey, Matsumoto said she left my paperwork in here?"

Karin tilted her head to the side. "Did she?"

Tōshirō bit back a groan. He didn't know what he would do if Rangiku had lost a wad of his paperwork. "Yeah. She said something about how you didn't want to come to the party, so she thought you'd look after it."

Karin nodded, more to herself than anything. "Yeah, she asked me about the party around two. Then I went to go visit my sister in the fourth for an hour and half. By the time I came back she had already started. She didn't give it to me in person, but that doesn't mean it's not in the office. Give me a minute."

Karin got up from her chair and started looking round the room, trying to figure out where Rangiku would put the paperwork. It certainly wasn't with hers, she knew that much. She checked a couple of bookshelves, coming up short each time. Tōshirō, not really being able to look with her as he didn't know the layout of her office, found himself standing in the middle of the room doing nothing. Feeling awkward, he tried starting a conversation. "Why was your sister in the fourth?"

"Hmm? Oh, she just had a baby."

"Oh really?" Children were something of a rarity in Soul Society. "I wish her congratulations."

Karin smiled at him. "I'll be sure to tell her. I'm pretty excited to be an aunt, but my dad's started bugging me because of it."

"Bugging you? How?"

Karin rolled her eyes as she squatted down to check another one of her bookcases. "He keeps nagging me to have kids now as well."

"Do you not want children?"

"It's not that. It's just, I'm not in a position to be even thinking about that. I mean I could do with a guy first, for a start. Ah! Here it is."

Karin rose from her position on the floor, handing the paperwork to Tōshirō. "Thanks. Now I just have to find a place to actually fill it out."

Karin shrugged. "Do it here? There's enough room on the desk."

Tōshirō looked at Karin for a moment. "Oh, I wouldn't want to disturb you."

"I wouldn't have offered if I minded. It's fine, honestly."

Toshiro thought for a moment. He felt comfortable enough with Karin to work on the same desk as her, plus it was a lot easier than going somewhere else. As he settled himself on one side of the desk, Karin turned the lights on. "I've been alive for decades and I still find it weird how early it gets dark in the winter." She pulled the curtains across the window, hoping to keep the heat in the office. "Then again I've always preferred night." Tōshirō watched as she sat down opposite him, trying to ignore the fact that he noticed how close they were. The two of them worked in silence for a few minutes, before Tōshirō spoke again. "Your sister whose just given birth, she's your twin sister isn't she?"

Karin answered without looking up from her paperwork. "Yep."

"And she's already married with a child?"

"Yep."

"Isn't she a bit young?" Karin raised an eyebrow, causing Tōshirō to feel a little embarrassed. He hadn't really thought about what he said until he had said it. "It's just, I know your age, and it's very rare for a shinigami that age to marry. Let alone have children."

Karin shrugged. "Yeah I know. But she was so sure that they were perfect for each other. Still is. I suppose everything just fell into place for her or something like that."

"I guess she's lucky then."

Karin finally looked up. "You wanna get married?"

Tōshirō stared at Karin. He wasn't sure he was should have this discussion with her of all people, but talking with her came so naturally, and besides, if anybody was going to understand, it was her. "I don't know. Some days I do, some days I don't." Karin leaned back into her chair, listening carefully. "It's just...I like the idea of having a partner, someone to come home to, someone to look after and someone to look after you, but if anything happened to them I would struggle with it."

"Surely that's the same for everyone though."

"To some extent sure. But...I'm a Captain. I'm a Captain and if something happened to them it would mess me up a lot. I'm responsible for hundreds of division members. I'd feel..."

"Like a failure?"

"Something like that."

Karin shrugged. "My brother went through that. Actually he and his wife struggled a bit in the first few years of their marriage because of it. He'd never feel comfortable letting her go on the battlefield, and she took it the wrong way." Tōshirō nodded, knowing full well who she was talking about. "Maybe you just gotta find someone who can take care of themselves. I mean that feeling won't go away, but if you know they're strong, then it's less troublesome. I'd also recommend finding someone you're comfortable talking about this with, so they know what's going on."

Tōshirō nodded, trying desperately to ignore the voice in the back of his head that was promptly informing him that he felt comfortable enough with Karin to talk to about this. "If only it were that easy."

"Oh come on. You're a Captain. And you're not exactly bad looking either, you're telling me you can't find a girl?"

"Yeah, because I'm a Captain. I'm too busy to go out trying to meet women. Besides, a lot of people are intimidated by me."

"Huh. Maybe it's a Shiba thing then, being attracted to power."

Tōshirō couldn't stop himself from laughing. All of the partners the Shibas had ended up with were powerful, in one way or another. He wouldn't be surprised if it was a Shiba thing. Karin continued talking. "Probably a good thing though. You'd never be left alone otherwise."

Tōshirō leaned back in his chair, work left abandoned. "What makes you say that?"

Karin stared at him. "Have you ever looked in a mirror?" Tōshirō just stared back at her, confused. Karin rolled her eyes. "Jeez, no wonder you haven't got a girlfriend. That was my not so subtle way of telling you you're hot, Captain prodigy."

Tōshirō blinked. That was...bold, to say the least. And he had absolutely no idea how to react. He was at war with himself. One side, the intelligent side, told him to ignore it. She was his subordinate, it wasn't appropriate. At all. The other side was telling him that the fact that it was inappropriate just made the whole situation better. It was one extreme or the other. He knew exactly which side to go with, but the fact that he had been attracted to this woman for weeks now wasn't making it easy.

Karin laughed at his reaction. "Have you ever been hit on before?"

"...Can't say that I have."

"Oh good, that way you can't tell how bad my pick up lines are."

Tōshirō bit back a smile. "Have you ever gotten anywhere with bad pick up lines?"

"You're my first victim, so I don't know yet. But hopefully I'll find out soon enough." Both of Tōshirō's eyebrows went up. "So Captain, you're always talking about how I make your day, how about I make your night as well?"

Tōshirō laughed slightly before looking away, slight tinge of pink on his cheeks. "That was bad." Karin grinned as she watched him, prompting Tōshirō to speak again. "I couldn't though. We couldn't."

Karin pouted. "You just said that you like the idea of having a partner."

"Yeah, but we couldn't. You're my subordinate. You're underneath me."

"No Captain, the problem here is that I'm not underneath you."

Tōshirō blushed darker. "But seriously. It's inappropriate."

Karin shrugged. "Yeah, that's how I felt about it too until I realised something the other week." Tōshirō gestured for her to continue. "You're a Captain. By definition, anybody who isn't the same rank as you is your subordinate."

She had a point there. "Yes but...Well, it wouldn't be as bad if you weren't in my squad."

"If I weren't in your squad, you never would've met me. You never actually go out. And besides, it's not like I would expect you to treat me any different in the workplace. Although if it got too difficult I suppose I could always transfer out."

"Don't do that, I don't think the squad has ever run so smoothly without you."

Karin smiled at him. "Thank you. But seriously Captain, you want me in your squad, and you want me in your life, and the only thing that seems to be stopping you from having both is your ethics, which I would argue, are flawed. Unless you date a Captain, anybody you date is gonna be underneath you. And it's not like I'm doing this to get special treatment, nor are you using your rank to try and take advantage of me. What's the problem?"

Toshiro tried hard to think of an argument, he really did. He knew that he shouldn't let this happen. He was the Captain here, wasn't it his responsibility to make sure that this didn't happen? And yet, somehow, ten minutes later, he still ended up pulling her into his lap, kissing her until she couldn't breathe.

It was hard to be guilty when all he could feel was her rubbing up against him.


	21. Purr

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When he imagined what his family life would be like, it didn't involve a cat. But then, children can be very persuasive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, it's been a long time since I've updated this. I apologise for that, college, , health issues, exams and applying for universities got in the way. This isn't my favourite chapter, but I really struggled with this prompt and I think this is as good as I'm gonna get, I hope you enjoy it anyway. The next chapter prompt is 'Money' which I actually have an idea for, so I hope you look forward to it!

"That can't be right."

Karin shifted slightly at the sound of Tōshirō's voice. "Hmm?"

"I could've sworn I heard a cat."

Karin's eyebrows furrowed as she propped herself up on her forearms. "Huh? A cat?"

Tōshirō mirrored her position and nodded. "Yeah. We did lock up all of the doors last night right?"

"Definitely."

Both of their heads turned towards the closed door as they heard something fall downstairs. Karin sighed as she got out of the bed, wrapping a dressing gown around her as she made her way downstairs, Tōshirō following. While Karin expected to see a cat running around, knocking things down, she did not expect to see her five year old son chasing after it.

"What are you doing?" Karin repeated herself when it appeared that the child didn't hear. "Kiyoshi! What are you doing?"

The small boy turned round, guilty expression on his face as he turned round. "I...I was trying to catch the kitty."

Karin sighed. "Well yes, but why? Why is it even in the house?"

Kiyoshi's eyes dropped to the floor, face guiltier than before. "I heard it meowing outside. I thought it wanted to come in."

Tōshirō raised an eyebrow. "So that's how the cat got in, but why is it now hiding in the corner? Why was it running from you?"

Kiyoshi started fiddling with his hands. "I don't know. I was only petting it! But then it scratched me and ran off."

Karin stepped forward. "It scratched you? Where?"

"Are you alright?"

The child nodded vigorously at both his parents. "I'm ok. It was only my arm, and it didn't hurt a lot."

Tōshirō nodded. "We should still tend to it later."

Karin made a sound of agreement as she slowly approached the cat currently cowering in the corner of the room, half under a chair. "You might have petted him a little too hard sweetheart." After a couple of minutes of convincing, she had managed to get the cat out from it's little hiding place and into her arms. "I think he's calmed down a bit now."

"How do you know it's a boy kitty?"

Karin looked from the cat to her son. "I don't really. I can't tell the difference without looking at it properly. It just kinda slipped out."

"Mum?"

Karin sighed at the tone of her voice her son was using. It was the tone he used when he wanted something. "Yes?"

"Can we keep the kitty?"

"I don't know, it already might be someone's pet. This little kitty could be lost with someone trying to find it."

"But it might not! It doesn't have a collar!"

"Not everyone puts collars on their pets. We should at least check around to make sure it isn't somebody's."

Kiyoshi thought for a moment. "What if it's no one's? Then can we keep it?"

Karin paused for a moment, then turned to Tōshirō. "What do you think?"

Tōshirō looked at his son's pleading eyes for a moment before turning back to Karin. "It could end up being a lot of hassle, having a pet."

Karin shrugged. "Could be worse. Cats look after themselves for the most part."

"To be honest, I don't know much at all about keeping a pet cat. Do you?"

"I probably know more than you, but still not a decent amount." Karin paused for a moment before turning back to Kiyoshi. "Ok how about this. We'll look into it, and we'll think about whether we can keep it or not, but we really should check that no one is missing that cat first. It's not a yes, but it's not a no either. Sound good?" The five year old nodded vigorously, knowing it was a victory.

After a couple of weeks of searching for an owner, the Hitsugaya family came up short. And after being subjected to weeks and weeks of begging and pleading, Tōshirō and Karin finally gave in and let Kiyoshi keep the cat as a pet. Tōshirō was worried that keeping the cat would cause problems, and there were some issues to begin with, with Kiyoshi getting scratched for being a bit too overzealous and not being careful enough, but other than that they had no problems. Unfortunately, despite all of Kiyoshi's efforts to become the cat's best friend, it seemed that Tōshirō was the cat's favourite, much to everyone's surprise.


End file.
